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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29003514">Light it up - Julie x Luke</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leledezember/pseuds/Leledezember'>Leledezember</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Julie and the Phantoms - Juke [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Afterlife, Ghosts, Love, Search, ghost - Freeform, season two</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:35:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,161</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29003514</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leledezember/pseuds/Leledezember</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>" You know that it would be easier for all of us, if we weren´t here?", he said, looking in her eyes full with tears....</p><p> </p><p>This story takes place directly after the first season. Luke, Reggie and Alex are no longer ghosts, Luke meets his parents and Julie searches for her mother. Pls Review</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex Mercer &amp; Julie Molina &amp; Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Caleb Covington/Willie, Flynn &amp; Alex Mercer &amp; Carlos Molina &amp; Julie Molina &amp; Ray Molina &amp; Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters, Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Julie and the Phantoms - Juke [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2127738</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Episode one</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hey hey,</p><p>just a short message. This story was originally written in german, so if somethins isn´t correct I´m sorry for that. Please leave a Review it really means a lot for me</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Julie was standing in the corridor at school waiting for Flynn, whom she hadn't seen since the concert last night. She really had to tell her what had happened.</p><p>"Hey Julie!", Julie turned around. There stood Luke. No, he wasn't just standing there, he was coming right at her. In the middle of the school, and everyone could see him. When he reached her, Julie grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into a small room behind the lockers.</p><p>"Luke! What did I tell you? You can't just turn up here like this. What do people think. Suddenly my phantoms have come alive?", Julie shook her head. How could she have believed for a second that the boys would stick to their agreement. Especially not Luke, once again he was just doing what he wanted.</p><p>"Hey hey, calm down okay. It's all good now and no one has to hide or lie anymore," Luke told her, in his calm voice that Julie loved about him.</p><p>"I know, but then I'll be the one answering all the questions and I honestly don't feel like explaining it to my dad," Julie looked into Luke's eyes. For a moment she forgot that she was supposed to be angry with him. But you couldn't stay mad at him for long. He had that way about him.</p><p>"You don't have to explain it to him. I think we'll find a solution so he'll buy it," Luke said again in his calm voice, but Julie wasn't so sure. She had allowed herself too much lately and she was sure that her father was not in a position to understand it all at the moment. He would not want to understand the truth because it is so absurd that even Julie often fails to believe what she can see. But in the last few weeks while she had been making music with the boys when they were ghosts, so much had changed. Julie had to deal with the thought that she might be dreaming it all, or that it could all be over soon, from one second to the next. That nothing would ever be the same again. When Luke, Reggie and Alex had told her that they had to settle an open score in order to finally cross over to the other side, something inside her had broken. She didn't want them to just disappear again. Not after all that had happened between them. But the story had been different. The boys were people now, and everyone could see them. But the best part was. Julie could finally touch them.</p><p>"I hope so. Because I don't really want to tell him that. He wouldn't believe me," Julie said, looking back up at Luke who was smiling at her.</p><p>"But what are you doing here at school?" she finally asked him after he hadn't said anything to her for a while but just watched her.</p><p>"Well, it may sound totally stupid now, but we've decided to go back to school as well," Luke said and Julie stared at him.</p><p>"You're not serious are you?" she asked dumbfounded and Luke started laughing.</p><p>"I can't believe you just bought that!" he laughed and Julie boxed him against his chest.</p><p>"Jeez Luke, stop with the stupid jokes. I don't even know what to believe anymore when you allow yourself to make jokes like that!", Julie crossed her arms. She really didn't have time for such jokes, but secretly she was glad that it was just a joke. She didn't even want to think about what would have happened if he had been serious.</p><p>"So what are you doing here then?" she asked him, piercing him with her stare. It took Luke a moment to be able to answer her.</p><p>"Well, to be honest, I wanted to talk to you while the others weren't around," Luke said a little hesitantly, looking down at the floor for a moment before looking at Julie again. Was this finally the moment Julie had been waiting for so long?</p><p>"I just don't quite know how best to address this," Luke stopped saying anything in response and turned away from Julie.</p><p>"What's going on with you Luke? Is there something you want to tell me then just say it. I won't be mad at you, I promise." Luke didn't answer on it.</p><p>"I'll tell you another time," he said firmly, and before Julie could react, he had pushed past her and stepped back into the corridor. He didn't look where he was going and bumped into Flynn, who was already waiting for Julie. When she saw Luke she wanted to scream but Julie held her back.</p><p>"Guys, let's be honest. What is wrong with you all today?", Julie shook her head and looked at Luke.</p><p>"It wasn't a good idea to come here to school, but you wouldn't listen to me," Julie took Flynn by the hand and just left Luke standing there looking after her with tears in his eyes. As Flynn asked her question after question, Julie couldn't help thinking about Luke. He wanted to tell her something, maybe even that he loved her. But he hadn't been able to say it, or didn't want to say it. Sure, yesterday he was a ghost and a relationship between the two of them would not have been possible, but today everything is different again and there are new possibilities.</p><p>"Hello? Julie? What was Luke doing here? No. Don't tell me. What am I asking you. I should be asking you how it's possible for everyone to see him when he's not playing music with you?", Flynn had crossed her arms after reaching the music room with Julie. There were no students there at the time and so they could talk there in peace.</p><p>"Flynn, I have no idea how this can be. Last night after the concert I went to my mom's studio again. The boys were still there and all of a sudden they came alive. I can touch them now," Julie told me, but Flynn's facial expression revealed that she didn't believe Julie.</p><p>"Jules, ghosts can't come back to life. They're just the souls of dead bodies. They don't just turn back into people!", Flynn put her hands on Julie's shoulders.</p><p>"But if I do tell you. I didn't imagine the whole thing and you could see Luke just now too - so could the rest of the school. How else are you going to explain the whole thing?", Julie knew Flynn wouldn't believe her. It had been the problem back then and Flynn had almost called her crazy when she had explained about Luke, Reggie and Alex. But it wasn't until Julie had shown her that she had been convinced and had believed Julie a little more than she had before.</p><p>"I have no idea, but ghosts don't just come back to life. You can't explain that to me. You're driving me crazy with your life. Strange things happen all the time, especially when the boys have something to do with it," Flynn was almost uninterruptible and Julie was having trouble keeping her friend quiet. She was about to tell Flynn about her magical moment with Luke when Carrie joined them.</p><p>"Was that one of your holograms just now?" asked Carrie, who was once again and expressed herself in an extremely genteel manner, and of course, purposefully made her tone seem so condescending.</p><p>"Wow! I didn't know holograms could suddenly be alive!", Carrie smiled nastily at Julie and turned around, then disappeared again. Once upon a time Julie and Carrie had been best friends, but with the success of her father Trevor Wilson aka Bobby from Sunset Curve, not only had Carrie changed but the level of friendship between them had broken down. Julie had often wondered why it had to come to this, but the more time that had passed, the less she thought about it.</p><p>"Mean snake!" hissed Flynn, but Carrie had already disappeared and couldn't possibly hear Flynn's comment anymore.</p><p>"Oh, let her be. She's just unhappy with her own life," Julie looked back at Flynn.</p><p>"So back to Luke and the other two.", Flynn distracted Julie from further thoughts of the past.</p><p>"How are you going to tell your father? Or does he already know about it?", Flynn wanted to know but Julie shook her head.</p><p>"I don't know exactly how to tell him. I just don't know any more. It's all been so sudden and I don't know how to deal with it. Or how it can all be possible all at once," Julie sighed. When the boys were ghosts, it had clearly been easy to find answers to all their questions, but this one evening had now clearly thrown everything into disarray.</p><p>"I'm afraid I can't help you there either, as I have no idea about all this myself, but maybe you could just sit down with them. Maybe you'll find out how it's all possible," Flynn said and Julie nodded.</p><p>"Yeah, that might be a good idea," Julie hugged her best friend gratefully.</p><p>Luke had arrived back at the studio. As he opened the two large doors he saw Reggie and Alex sitting on the couch staring at the ceiling.</p><p>"What's wrong with you two?" he asked them both, having of course earlier scared Alex so badly that he had fallen off the couch and was lying on the floor.</p><p>"Jeez Luke, don't scare me like that!", Alex raised his head and slowly straightened up while Luke also settled down on the couch.</p><p>"Now don't tell me you've been sitting here staring at the ceiling all morning," Luke looked at the two of them who just shot each other looks and said nothing in response.</p><p>"Anyway. I was at Julie's school and the other people could see me even though I wasn't playing music," Luke told them and Alex looked at him in disbelief.</p><p>"What do you mean? They can just see us now?", Alex asked and Luke just gave a "Yup.", grinning at his two friends.</p><p>"I mean, isn't that awesome?" he exclaimed, but Alex just seemed confused about it.</p><p>"How is something like that even possible? I mean we were ghosts. We don't just come back to life like that. And anyway, if it were then we're the first ones it could happen to.", Alex raised his head.</p><p>"So many changes. You know I have my problems with that," Luke and Reggie nodded.</p><p>"But maybe there's something to it. I mean, we still haven't settled our score," Reggie interjected into the conversation. "Maybe it's something else," he said, and his two friends looked at him questioningly. Even if he is not always the brightest, or if he can't answer any questions, maybe he could now prove what he was capable of. Because when he thought about it, he felt different than before.</p><p>"What are you trying to say, Reggie?" asked Alex, who knew his friend best of all. Not only did he know him best, but he also knew his history better than anyone else. But why that was the case, that was all far in the past.</p><p>"Guys, what I'm trying to say is that maybe it wasn't possible to settle the score as a ghost. Maybe for the very reason that no one could see us unless we were playing music with Julie," Reggie had now also sat down on the couch with Luke and Alex after getting up from the small armchair.</p><p>"You mean it has nothing to do with the music at all?", Luke now asked and Reggie nodded hesitantly.</p><p>"Maybe, maybe not. We don't know, do we?" he said, playing around with his bass.</p><p>"I don't think so. I mean the music is everything to us. It's always been everything to us. What other reason could there be to connect the three of us?" asked Luke to the group, but neither of his friends could give him an answer.</p><p>"You see? There's no other reason that connects us except music," Luke said, stretching.</p><p>"It's something musical. We don't know what it is exactly yet, but we'll figure it out," Luke said with satisfaction.</p><p>"If we still want to, anyway." said Alex quietly, just barely getting the words past his lips. Luke and Reggie looked at him, stunned.</p><p>"How can you say something like that?" the two of them shouted almost as if in chorus.</p><p>"I'm just saying. Don't get me wrong, but if we're actually alive again now and people can see us all the time, I wouldn't give that up so easily. I think now we have what we've always wanted again, and I'd hate to lose it," muttered Alex who was worried and didn't know how to deal with this new change. He didn't know anything anymore. It was all driving him crazy and he probably couldn't and didn't want to understand.</p><p>"Haven't you ever asked yourselves why all this is happening?" he finally asked his two friends.</p><p>"I mean, we were dead. Then we just show up here 25 years later, and when we make music with Julie then we're out there for everyone to see. Our big dream of being superstars was still possible, but why? Why did we have the chance? Why all this? And now suddenly we're human again and everyone can see us? Why only?", Alex had so many questions that he just spoke out so fast that his two friends had trouble following him.</p><p>"Wow wow, now calm down. Believe me, there is a solution for everything, and if there is a solution for everything, then there will be an explanation for everything," Luke reassured him, who had also been asking himself the same questions, but was less concerned with them than Alex.</p><p>"Really? Because I think there are quite a few questions you can't answer for me, let alone find an answer to," Alex said and looked Luke with a serious look right in his blue eyes.</p><p>"And what are those?" asked Luke, who could already think of part of it, but didn't say it.</p><p>"Where's Willi? And what about Caleb? Do you think they're still here but we just can't see them now because we're ghosts?" asked Alex and Luke nodded.</p><p>"Okay you're right. I really can't give you an answer there, and finding one is going to be hard too," Luke conceded defeat. Alex had won. But whether Alex was so happy about his victory was something else again. Luke knew Alex would like an answer to the question of what happened to Willi. Willi was special to him, something he had never had before. You only had to look at Alex and you knew immediately that he was totally different from other young men. Not only by the way he dressed, but also by the way he behaved. And that was exactly the kind of person Willi had been, although Luke thought he was a bisexual Willi, but that didn't make much difference. This was all about Alex and Willi, and what the two of them had as ghosts. Luke knew the story of Alex and his parents. How they had only argued and not paid any attention to Alex since he had come out to them. They didn't want him around any more and finally didn't pay any attention to him until he just left. How hard it must have been for Alex? Luke himself had also had a hard time with the thoughts of his parents, whom he had simply left behind, but still it was probably not as hard for him as it was for Alex, whose parents didn't even live here in the city anymore.</p><p>"Well, that's exactly what I mean. Don't you notice how we miss the truth? It's like someone is making sure we don't know what it's all about and why it's happening to us," Alex leaned his head against the back of the couch and looked up at the ceiling again.</p><p>"So you mean there's a reason for all this?", Reggie asked as if he had only just realised what the two of them had been talking about. Alex looked at Reggie for a moment and then looked away again. Reggie hadn't had it easy either. His parents had only argued and were on the verge of splitting up. Somehow all three of them had had a difficult past that would never leave them. And no matter what they did about it now, it would never make up for what had been destroyed.</p><p>"I'm not saying there's a reason for all this, but I'm telling you it's far from over and in fact I'm sure we still have some things to take on," Alex blew the air out of his much he had wanted to be human again. There were still so many things he would like to do, but he had never had the chance. And now? From one day to the next he had the chance to do everything. Wasn't that a bit strange? Or did it only seem that way to him?</p><p>"Anyway, how was it with Julie at school?" asked Alex, looking at Luke, whose face had changed abruptly.</p><p>"Yeah right, what were you doing at school?" asked Reggie now too and Luke found himself caught in the middle between his two best friends and there was no way he could escape the situation. He had to tell them if they didn't already know, just because he had acted in such a way that it must have been too obvious again. Just as he was about to tell his two friends how he felt about Julie and that he had feelings for her more than he could imagine, the doors opened and they noticed Carlos still standing with his back to the doors. In one leap, Luke, Reggie and Alex jumped up and hid behind and under the couch before Carlos entered.</p><p>"Yeah Dad, I'll be right there!" exclaimed Carlos before standing with both feet in the studio and looking around. He still hadn't given up looking for the ghosts, especially not after he had recognised the three holograms. It was clear to him that his sister had contact with ghosts and he wanted to know how she had done it. All he knew was that it had started here in the studio. Back then, when the move was still in the offing, Julie had gone to the studio alone to tidy up and look for things that could possibly be sold. Since that day, she had changed completely and was acting rather suspiciously in Carlo's eyes. And he would get to the bottom of it, no matter what.</p><p>"What's he doing here?" hissed Alex to Reggie and Luke who had squeezed under the small couch and hoped Carlos wouldn't notice them. Julie's little brother had almost become dangerous once before when he had attacked her with salt. Fortunately, everything had turned out all right again. The salt had not effect. How could it? Salt kept away evil spirits and demons, but neither of those terms really suited them.</p><p>"I don't know, but he's a real danger to us," Luke hissed back as they watched Carlos. He slipped quietly through the studio and looked around thoroughly.</p><p>"I know you guys are here. I know about everything," Carlos said, but it didn't come out all that convincingly. When he had finally inspected everything carefully, he turned around and left the studio again after Ray had called for him again.</p><p>"Oh man, that went well.", Alex wiped his hair out of his forehead and helped Luke and Reggie to their feet.</p><p>"What do you guys think about us going into town? Since we're alive now we haven't been there yet?", Alex asked and Luke and Reggie didn't mind so they set off. They crept along the wall of the house through the small garden and only when they reached the street did they walk on as normal.</p><p>"Now that you mention it. Life is kind of weird," Luke mumbled, who for the first time could observe the little things again and could also notice them on his body. A few days ago he couldn't even go outside properly, because as soon as a small gust of wind came, he almost couldn't stand. The air would always have carried him away. But now the wind just bounced off him and couldn't do anything.</p><p>"That's what I've been trying to tell you all along, but nobody listens to me," Alex said proudly after Luke had finally agreed with him.</p><p>"Now do you understand what I mean when I say that I have a hard time with change?" he asked his two friends.</p><p>"I think you mean you have a hard time with everything," Reggie said, catching a shove in Luke's side.</p><p>"Hey, what? It's like that!", Reggie defended himself.</p><p>"What's that supposed to mean now? As far as I know, I never had my problems with change when I was human. It was only when we came back as ghosts that it started," Alex looked at Reggie questioningly, but didn't probe further.</p><p>"Whatever you say," Reggie looked ahead again and seemed to have already left the earth with his thoughts. Just like he always did.</p><p>"Guys, calm down now. We all know we had a difficult time when we were humans. And yes, maybe it was also our fault that we had such a hard time, but that's no reason to talk about it now. After all, it was 25 years ago," Luke said and smiled. For him, the whole thing was new, but he tried to make the best of it.</p><p>"If we have the chance to live as humans again, who knows what else we'll have a chance for," Luke added and Alex nodded.</p><p>"Right! Sounds good-", Alex hadn't finished his sentence when he just stopped talking and stared ahead. They had reached the city centre by now and were walking in the pedestrian zone, which was teeming with people. The Orpheum was also already in sight.</p><p>"What's wrong Alex?" asked Luke, looking at his friend who had now stopped and was just staring ahead.</p><p>"Don't you see them?" asked Reggie, who seemed to be seeing the same thing as Alex, but reacting differently.</p><p>"What am I supposed to see?" asked Luke, turning from one to the other. His two friends were really weird sometimes and acted strangely. Sometimes Luke wondered if he knew them at all, the way they were sometimes."Take a closer look and you'll see it," Reggie said, grabbing Luke by his shoulders and standing him further forward. And then Luke saw it. Now he understood why Alex had suddenly stopped and said nothing more. And he also understood why Reggie perceived everything differently from Alex. There, not far from the Orpheum and a small shop, stood his parents Mitch and Emily. Luke almost had a heart attack and stood transfixed.</p><p>"Your parents are here." said Reggie, who must not have noticed that Luke had already seen them, but Luke didn't say anything to him in response either, just continued to stare at his parents.</p><p>"Aren't you going to go and see them?" asked Alex who had broken out of his stupor and was now standing next to his two friends again.</p><p>"Are you crazy? They'll think they've gone completely crazy if they suddenly see me again. 25 years after I died. Oh no, I won't do that to them, even if they deserved it and I'm still mad at them, but it really doesn't have to be that way," Luke said and took a step backwards.</p><p>"Whatever you say, but I'm just saying, maybe this would be a good chance to make up for something that was long overdue," Alex said, inwardly hoping he would see his parents again too, even if they didn't like him or consider him a son anymore since he had come out, but it would be worth a try if he could do it.</p><p>"Of course, you're right, but I wouldn't even know what to say to them. The whole thing is just so crazy and I can't deal with that just yet," Luke said, pulling his two friends into a side alley as his mother turned directly in their direction.</p><p>"You know, even though I miss them every second, I wouldn't know how to go and talk to them right now. Just because they've thought I was dead for too long. If I just show up there again now, it could have bad consequences," Luke said with a lowered voice. Of course he missed her, but there was nothing he could do about it. Yes, he could change something, but then he would be the reason why they would go crazy. He didn't want that. He would rather let them continue to believe that he was dead.</p><p>"You don't have to talk to them today, but maybe in the near future, as long as you are still able to contact them. Who knows how long we'll be like this," Reggie said and Luke just nodded.</p><p>"Do you actually think Caleb has disappeared?" asked Alex, who kept keeping his eyes open, but there was no sign of Willi far and wide.</p><p>"Well, at least we haven't heard anything more from him or your ghost friend. So I guess he's not here right now. But you never know with him what's coming next," Luke said as they followed the alley and came to another street.</p><p>"Honestly? I never want to have anything to do with him again. He's mean and I don't like mean people," Reggie said, shaking himself. Every time he just thought about Caleb and the time they had with him, he got goosebumps spreading all over his body.</p><p>"Reggie's right. We should be glad he's not here anymore, at least not right now. It gives us time to focus on more important things, like song lyrics or a new little concert with Julie," Luke said.</p><p>"You already know you're pretty attached to her," Alex laughed while watching Luke blush.</p><p>"That's not true at all. Julie and I are just colleagues," Luke claimed but his face betrayed something else.</p><p>"Come on Luke. You can talk to us about it and we see it every time we play music with her. The way you always smile at her and get offended when she doesn't pay attention to you. That can't be something that happens between two colleagues," Alex said and Reggie agreed.</p><p>"After all, it's been going on between you two for quite a while and I'm even sure there are feelings involved. From you and from her," Reggie don't think Julie has feelings for me, do you? She's got the hots for that totally cute Nick," Luke disguised his voice when he said Nick's name.</p><p>"See, and you sound jealous again just because Julie likes that Nick," Reggie laughed.</p><p>"But I don't think she has feelings for that Nick. Maybe she used to have them, but she's very different with him than she is with you. And that's saying something." said Alex who had seen Luke and Julie together many times and thought they made a good couple.</p><p>"Yeah, but it's kind of weird. A relationship between a ghost and a human isn't possible," Luke said.</p><p>"Um hello? Have you forgotten that we're not ghosts now?" laughed Reggie.</p><p>"So a relationship is possible," Alex added but Luke wasn't so sure.</p><p>"You know, I would love to tell her how I feel, but what if we're not here soon. What if everything just changed again? Then she'd be alone and even sadder than she already was." Luke said, lowering his voice again.</p><p>"Hmm, well then I don't know, but you shouldn't always keep everything to yourself like that. Let her know how you feel and you'll see that everything will change. And for the better," Alex said and winked at Luke.</p><p>"I'll think about it, but for now we should get back into the studio and work on a new song, after all we have a gig at Julie's school in a few days. And we should be prepared for that," Luke said and they made their way back to the studio.</p><p>"Do you have a title for the new song yet?" asked Reggie, who remembered that Luke had spent half the night writing a song. He always did that when he couldn't sleep, whether as a human in the past, a ghost or back as a human in the present.</p><p>"Indeed. I call it "Light it up" I think that's a good title," Luke said and as they walked down the street they started to sing the song.</p><p>Light the fire inside me,</p><p>Let the sparks fly, we both know what we feel, so let us fly</p><p>I don't know exactly how to tell you,</p><p>but ever since I met you, my feelings have been going crazy.</p><p>Like a spark in the dark sky, you fly through life, just leave everything, you know?</p><p>But when I look into your eyes, I see the fire,</p><p>Burning everything down, down, down</p><p>And it'll never be the same again, the same, the same</p><p>Light the fire in me</p><p>You and I will fly</p><p>Sparks will fly</p><p>Like you lit the fire inside me</p><p>Light the fire in me</p><p>You and I will fly</p><p>Sparks will fly</p><p>Like you lit the fire inside me</p><p>Leave nothing behind, take everything with you</p><p>This energy is in us like electricity,</p><p>Through our veins it flows</p><p>Spread the feeling, you know?</p><p>But when I look into your eyes, I see the fire,</p><p>It burns everything down, down, down</p><p>And it'll never be the same, the same, the same</p><p>Light the fire in me</p><p>You and I will fly</p><p>Sparks will fly</p><p>Like you lit the fire inside me</p><p>Light the fire in me</p><p>You and I will fly</p><p>Sparks will fly</p><p>Like you lit the fire inside me</p><p>Lyrics by Lele Dezember</p><p>"The song is really good," Reggie had a smile on her lips when they reached the studio again without any incidents. But when they opened the door to the studio, Julie was standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed, as if she had been waiting for them for some time.</p><p>"Oh, hi Julie1," Alex said when he noticed her and the next moment Luke had noticed her too.</p><p>"What...s going on here?" he asked her, slightly confused, after she had just stared at the three of them and said nothing.</p><p>"Where were you?" she finally said, her voice sounding disappointed and sour.</p><p>"We were in town." said Reggie, who probably didn't consider the situation tense.</p><p>"Didn't I make it very clear to you guys that you can't just go anywhere you want? People can see you now and I don't want any things to happen that you have yet to regret," Julie said and Luke nodded.</p><p>"Nothing happened though. Everything went fine. No Caleb, no Willi, no Trevor.", Luke said to reassure Julie, but that didn't quite work out the way he wanted it to.</p><p>"You guys don't understand. Everything seems perfectly normal to you now, but it's not. I just don't understand how it can be possible and I would love to know how it happened and if there is a catch," Julie said and Luke couldn't help but hug her. Julie didn't even resist his hug but let it happen.</p><p>"Hey hey, it's all good. It's all still new for us, but we can use some free time. The last time we felt this alive was 25 years ago. And that's a hell of a long time," Luke said quietly to her.</p><p>"Exactly, and we're as stumped as you are. We can't explain the whole thing either," Alex said as he sat down at his drum kit.</p><p>"Come on, let's go outside," Luke pulled Julie with him outside the studio while Reggie and Alex rehearsed quietly.</p><p>"What are you going to do now? What are you going to do now that you're human again, or something like that?", Julie asked and Luke looked to the ground before looking back to Julie and looking directly at her.</p><p>"We don't know. Generally we have no idea why this is happening and how to deal with it. I'm starting to feel like Alex," Luke said and Julie had to grin slightly.</p><p>"You mean these constant changes are driving you crazy?" she laughed and Luke had to grin as well.</p><p>"Yeah, you could call it that. It's just an indescribable feeling we're going through right now. I've long forgotten what it feels like to be human. It's nothing compared to what you feel as a ghost," Luke said and Julie looked at him questioningly.</p><p>"What does it feel like to be a ghost?" she asked him.</p><p>"I don't really know. It's like there's a thick veil over you that holds you down and makes it impossible to live an easy life where you can do anything. It's like you're not allowed to be free," Luke said and Julie thought of her mother, whom she still hadn't heard from. She didn't even know if her mother had become a ghost or not. "Sounds like a great feeling," Julie grinned and Luke started grinning too, just because he always grinned when she did.</p><p>"But it's not like that now. That freedom may be confined now, but it's no longer obscured by a veil." he said</p><p>"But I just don't know how to deal with it directly yet. Alex is already all over the place too and Reggie, he's the same as ever. You know how." he said and Julie nodded. She could imagine what it must be like for the boys to go through such changes. What would she do if she were in their place? She would probably go crazy and grab her head. She would hope that it was just a dream from which she could easily escape when she opened her eyes. But it is not like that. The impossible had become possible and she had seen it with her own eyes. As crazy as it might sound, it was no longer crazy at all. Julie would even say that it had become normal.</p><p>"You know, I worry all the time. What if this is just such a short phase and then it goes away? Then everything would be different again and none of us could ever do anything about it," Julie said, sounding desperate. She was. She didn't want to lose Luke, Reggie and Alex. At first, when they were still ghosts, she had often had the thought that one day they would just disappear and she wouldn't even be able to remember them, but it turned out quite differently. Now the whole situation was not only strange and no one could explain it, but everything was going crazy.</p><p>"Hey, you sound like you're about to fall over. Just don't worry about it. I'm sure we won't just disappear," Luke said and took Julie in his arms again.</p><p>"Yeah, maybe so, but what if it does happen? Then it was all for nothing again," Julie said as she buried her face in Luke's shirt.</p><p>"Don't worry about it. We'll find a solution for everything, and I won't leave just like that as long as I have things to do," Luke said, speaking the last words very softly.</p><p>"What else do you have to do?", Julie lifted her head and looked at Luke.</p><p>"My parents. We ran into them in town today and there are certain things I need to tell them while I have the chance," Luke-like "Maybe I can help you with that. After all, I've been in contact with them before," Julie said and Luke nodded.</p><p>"That might not even be a bad idea. That would make me feel better," he said and smiled at Julie with his typical Luke smile.</p><p>"Don't worry, I'll help you with that in a minute," Julie said.</p><p>"As long as you promise me that you'll play by the rules and not just disappear," Luke nodded.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Episode two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next few days passed very quickly, not only because Julie and the boys were working on new songs. Somehow time passed faster than before and no one could really explain it. While Luke, together with Julie, worked on the new songs and forgot about his surroundings, Alex and Reggie sat on the couch and talked while they watched the two of them.</p><p>"You have to say, she's really talented," Reggie said and Alex nodded.</p><p>"When I remember the times when we wrote songs, it was always chaos," Alex laughed, remembering the years when they had written songs together with Luke. They had been the most important years ever, because that was the beginning for Sunset Curve, which unfortunately had never been finished. But looking at it now, it didn't matter, because now they had something they could never dream of back then. This thing with Julie wasn't just a dream they all wanted to have. No. It was also a family and a friendship that was so incredibly strong that no one could destroy it, not even Caleb could. When Alex thought of Caleb again, he also thought of Willi again and his heart ached. How he would love to hear from the skater, but it didn't look like the two lonely hearts would meet again. Willi was gone, and so was Caleb.</p><p>"Let me guess. You're thinking about Willi again?" asked Reggie, who had been watching Alex for a while. Alex nodded.</p><p>"Come on. He's not here anymore. He probably had to go with Caleb and didn't have a choice," Reggie said, trying to take Alex's mind off it, but it didn't work.</p><p>"I just don't understand it. Was Willi in some kind of danger or did Caleb have something of his that he couldn't turn his back on?" asked Alex and Reggie just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't really have a plausible answer to that. He himself had been watching everything he could see for the last two days, but he hadn't been able to discover anything of Caleb. There was no trace of the ghost.</p><p>"I'm just worried about him. I don't even know how he is, or if Caleb did something to him for helping us," Alex sighed and sank even deeper into the couch. He wanted most of all to crawl away and never be visible to others again.</p><p>"Now calm down. We know Willi. He doesn't let himself down that easily, and I'm sure he has a plan to get away from Caleb if he has him in his power," Reggie said and put an arm around Alex. It had never been easy for Luke, Alex and Reggie. It was as if the earth had turned against them, sometimes more and sometimes less heavily. And they were in the middle of it, being the pawns, eagerly awaiting the next train that would take them God knows where. Reggie couldn't even say what would happen tomorrow because he had no intervention and had to accept that he couldn't change the situation. Even if they all wanted to, all they could do was continue to stand there and wait. That was all that was left for them.</p><p>"You're right," Alex said, resting his head on Reggie's shoulder. Even if Reggie was a bit strange from time to time and didn't always notice everything, he was a good friend who showed no change exactly in such hopeless situations. He was always the same and would always remain so.</p><p>"But I would like to know how he is and if he still thinks about me at all. I don't even know how he feels about me," Alex said and sighed out loud again. It was difficult to think about it. No. It was difficult to think about the whole situation. It all made no sense, and yet somehow it made sense. Alex, however, wanted nothing more than a normal life.</p><p>"I'm sure he's thinking about you and he's fine too. Now don't worry or I'll have to worry that you'll leave one day and go looking for him," Reggie said and Alex had to grin.</p><p>"If you're not right, Reggie," Alex laughed before his mood changed again and he had to think about Willi again. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to look for him. Even if the idea came from Reggie, it didn't sound that bad.</p><p>"You know what Reg? That's actually a very good idea, that's exactly what I'm going to do," Alex said and straightened up. "What now? You want to look for him?" asked Reggie and Alex nodded again.</p><p>"What else am I supposed to do? I can't just sit here and do nothing, I mean maybe he needs my help and I'm just sitting here thinking about him. That won't help him either," Alex was suddenly obsessed with the idea of looking for Willi and before Reggie could say anything Alex had grabbed him by the hand, pulled him to his feet and had left the studio with him.</p><p>"You're not serious, are you?" asked Reggie after the two of them had walked down the street and were approaching the city centre.</p><p>"Why not? I'm going to look for him and I'm going to find him. I owe him that," Alex said firmly.</p><p>"You don't owe him anything, or did you secretly make a bet?" asked Reggie, slightly confused and not understanding anything anymore. Seeing Alex so sad had made him sad himself, but he never wanted him to behave like that just because he had told him one of his muddled ideas. Now Alex was taking the whole thing a little too seriously than it was meant to be.</p><p>"Listen Reg. Willi really helped us, even if it all backfired a bit, he tried to help us. And he was the only one who showed me how the spirit life works. All of a sudden I was able to lift things and open doors again, which I couldn't do as a ghost before, but with his help I could," Alex said and Reggie remembered the moment when Alex failed miserably to open a door. He had also refused to just walk through the wall as a ghost before. Alex always took things too seriously.</p><p>"But you don't even know where he is. Maybe he's not even in town anymore," Reggie said, trying to stop Alex from chasing a phantom.</p><p>"Reg, if he was out of town, I would feel it, believe me," Alex said, sounding so determined that Reggie didn't ask how Alex knew again.</p><p>"Okay good, so let's assume he's still in town. Where do we start looking for him? Do you know any places where he might be?" he asked and Alex thought for a moment.</p><p>"We went to a museum, that was at our second meeting. You can't call it a second meeting, more like the first meeting," Alex said and thought for a moment where the museum was. Back in 1995 everything looked different and there weren't all these small shops that now filled the city centre. It was hard to find your way around here if you still had the brain that was retarded in 1995.</p><p>"Well, let's just go there and see if he's there," Reggie said and the two set off.</p><p>Further away, in an unfamiliar building invisible to people, Caleb Covington was pacing. His long cloak billowed as he did so. Willi sat on a small armchair and watched his boss walk round and round the room, muttering something not human. What many didn't know about Calem was that he was not only a ghost, but also possessed black magic with which he could control anything he wanted. In that sense, he could change the course of a story that was written in a book with his mere glance, although such a thing was not possible. But Caleb could. Willi was even sure that Caleb had made a pact with the devil himself. How else would he be capable of such a thing?</p><p>"These guys, something about them is different from the other ghosts," Caleb muttered, stopping in front of Willi and looking at him. Willi slid back and forth in the chair.</p><p>"Something but I don't know what it is," Caleb said as his eyes turned yellow.</p><p>"Maybe they're not really ghosts at all," Willi said, but with each word he said his voice grew quieter.</p><p>"What do you mean?", Caleb raised an eyebrow and looked at Willi questioningly.</p><p>"Well...what if they are ghosts, but not like me, for example. I'm a lost soul, but they're not." said Willi, who had thought about this many times and had somehow come to question the boys' story. "Why wouldn't they be a lost soul? All those who come back to the world as ghosts are lost souls who have things to do before they can cross over to the other side," Caleb said, shaking his head, then he walked on again, leaving Willi just sitting there.</p><p>"But why wouldn't it be? They did what they had to do and, did it work? No, I don't think so," said Willi, who had gone back to the studio shortly after the concert he had sneaked into to see Alex, and he had indeed still been there. He hadn't just disappeared before his eyes like so many others.</p><p>"They must be ghosts for another reason. This isn't about an unpaid bill, no, this is about something else entirely," Willi said and had to think about Alex, even though he was supposed to forget him because he would never see him again.</p><p>"I don't believe in that. It can't be that three ghosts show up here in town, in my territory at that, and then just mess up the whole system just because they're different," Caleb said, his voice thundering through the room. Willi made himself small and just wanted to get out of here.</p><p>"Whereas - your thought isn't bad. Maybe there is something to this after all, and I'm going to find out and change it forever. This is my town and it's going to stay my town," Caleb said, laughing darkly.</p><p>"What are you going to do with this Nick anyway?" asked Willi and Caleb laughed.</p><p>"Well what do you think? He's kind of like a second chance and having more access," Caleb said and Willi nodded hesitantly. He felt sorry for this Nick, even though he didn't know him and would never have anything to do with him, but just the fact that Caleb had taken advantage of such a young person was brazen enough.</p><p>"You know, to run an empire this big, Will, you need your power. And power isn't something you just get. You can work hard for it, or sell your soul to the devil to gain that power. But the easiest way is to take a young soul and slowly but deliberately suck out its power," Caleb said, grinning at Willi.</p><p>"And that's the way I think is better and more purposeful," he added and Willi looked away. Caleb was cruel.</p><p>"Okay, but what about when you're done with it and you've heard what you wanted to hear?" asked Willi.</p><p>"Then he has no more use for me. I'll erase his mind and he won't be able to remember anything he did. Then the matter will be closed for me and the boy will live a normal life again, as if nothing had ever happened," said Caleb, stopping in front of Willi again.</p><p>"And that's one of the ways I like it better too, even if it meant the person's life will never be the same again," Caleb laughed and Willi tried to hold off all the negative energy.</p><p>"Can I ask you something?" asked Willi and Caleb nodded. If Willi was already here with Caleb, then he could finally ask the questions he had always wanted to ask.</p><p>"What was your life as a human like?", even though Willi wasn't sure whether Caleb had ever been a human before or had simply been born as a ghost, this question had interested him for a long time. Caleb alone interested him. He wanted to know more about this person he spent his time with.</p><p>"My life as a human? As if that's in any way interesting or important!" said Caleb, not wanting to answer Willi.</p><p>"Please. I'd love to know. I don't know anything about you!" said Willi and finally Caleb did start to tell something about himself.</p><p>"Well, my life as a human wasn't that great. I always imagined it to be something different until I learned how to manipulate people. From that day on, everything changed. Until one day I wasn't paying attention and ran in front of a car. Well, then I became a ghost," Caleb had concealed a lot from Willi, but he didn't want to talk about it any further and decided to tell him only the short version, which should be enough to answer Willi's question. "Oh, that's cruel," Willi only said and didn't ask further, because he had felt something else at that moment. He sensed Alex. He had to be around here somewhere. But how could that be? Did he know where he was? Or was it just a coincidence? Willi stood up and walked to one of the windows. When he looked out onto the street, he saw Alex, who had just come out of the museum with Reggie. Quickly Willi looked away again. He didn't want Caleb to know anything about it. That would only mean trouble again. But when he briefly looked at Alex again, he noticed that Alex had changed. Not externally, but rather more from his aura. The aura he radiated had changed. It was no longer veiled as it had been before when he was a ghost, no. Now it was firmer and more clearly visible. Was he human again? Wilie grabbed his head. This was clearly too much for him.</p><p>"But...how...how is such a thing possible?", He stumbled backwards and sat down again on the small armchair because otherwise his legs would have given way and he would have fallen. What is going on here?</p><p>"What's wrong with you all of a sudden?", Caleb asked when he had turned back to Willi and he was clutching the armchair.</p><p>"Everything's fine. I just don't feel so good," Willi lied.</p><p>"You look it," Caleb said, paying no further attention to Willi, who was still clinging to the chair as if he were about to fly away with it.</p><p>"So, we've now searched all the places you could think of, but Willi is nowhere around. So what do we do next?" asked Reggie after they had left the museum and sat down on a bench. Alex was at his wits end and didn't know what to do, as he just wasn't made for such special things.</p><p>"I don't know." he said and his voice lowered and became quieter.</p><p>"Hey, now just don't give up. You said Willi was in danger from the beginning, or that he knew where Caleb was. And you wanted to find him. If you give up now, nothing will change - neither for you nor for Willi," Reggie said and tried to cheer Alex up again, but Alex had already sunk into himself and was no longer sane.</p><p>"I don't even know where to look for him anymore. I keep feeling like he's right near me, but I just can't find him," Alex said, running a hand through his hair, then putting his cap back on.</p><p>"But if you can feel it that he's here somewhere, then he must be here somewhere, right?" asked Reggie, immediately looking around in all directions. The old buildings reaching up to the sky didn't make it any easier though. There were hundreds of windows, and Willi could be behind any one of them. They wouldn't find him that way, Reggie knew that too. So they needed another idea how to find him.</p><p>"Remember that thing with Jake?" asked Reggie after he had an idea that was completely unrelated and wouldn't help them, but maybe he could get Alex to do something and see life as life again.</p><p>"You mean Jake Willers?" asked Alex and Reggie nodded.</p><p>"What's he got to do with this now?", Alex rolled his eyes and looked ahead again.</p><p>"Nothing. But do you remember the day he just disappeared like that and no one could explain his disappearance?", Reggie asked and Alex nodded.</p><p>"Sure. How could anyone forget something like that. It was a huge deal and the news was full of it," said Alex who could still remember the case with Jake Willers. Jake had been a musician like Luke, Alex and Reggie, but not in a band, he was a loner. He had gotten a record deal back then after becoming famous in a single night, by accident.</p><p>"The whole thing was more than spaced out and they didn't talk about anything else for weeks," Alex said after a while of silence.</p><p>"But how do you come up with him now?" he turned his attention back to Reggie.</p><p>"Well, I don't know about you, but I'd like to know what happened to him," Reggie said.</p><p>"As long as we don't get anywhere with Willi," he added, and Alex didn't mind. So the two of them got up and made their way to the police station. Back then, 25 years ago, they had filed a missing person's report and searched for Jake Willers. But then they died and never found out how the story had ended.</p><p>"But we wanted to look for Willi," Alex said, his mind still on Willi.</p><p>"I know, but we're not getting anywhere here. And maybe it's like Jake Willers with Willi. He disappears without a trace and nobody knows where he is or what happened to him. Maybe we'll know more when we find out what happened to Jake Willers," Reggie said and finally Alex agreed and the two of them continued walking. As the two of them entered the police station they were met with the spectacle of absolute chaos. Officers were running back and forth, papers were all over the floor and the atmosphere was unacceptable.</p><p>"Oh my God, if we haven't seen this before," Reggie laughed at the sight as the two approached the counter and waited for an officer to take their statement. It took a full ten minutes before anyone finally noticed them. A slightly older policeman with a full beard and an old uniform that was no longer in use came up to the two and looked at them suspiciously.</p><p>"What are you doing here?" he asked them, sounding annoyed and stressed. Almost as if he didn't want them here right now, but couldn't do anything about it.</p><p>"Um, we have a question for you about a missing person case from 1995," Alex said and the policeman raised an eyebrow.</p><p>„1995? Why are you interested in that? And anyway, you're not that old to have lived at that time and know about crimes from then," the policeman said. Of course he couldn't know what had happened in the last few weeks. He didn't know that he was just talking to young people who had been declared dead, who had come back to earth as ghosts and had now become human again. How was he supposed to know that either. Maybe he hadn't read through the files carefully at the time, but from the look of him, he had been with the police at the time.</p><p>"It's about...", Alex couldn't think of the right words.</p><p>"It's about a school project. That's right, it's about a school project. We're supposed to write something about missing people and deal with the cases that weren't solved back then," Reggie said and Alex looked at him thankfully.</p><p>"Well, if you say so. So how can I help you with that?" the policeman asked, still a little grumpy.</p><p>"We've been assigned the name Jake Willers and we're supposed to be on his case," Alex said after he was able to find the right words again.</p><p>"Jake Willers?" the policeman asked and they both nodded.</p><p>"Well, I'll take a look. It may take a while though. I'm sure you can see what's going on here," the policeman said before disappearing into a back room and just leaving the two standing there.</p><p>"Let's sit down, it'll take a while," Alex said and the two of them sat down on the two chairs that stood against a wall near the door.</p><p>"I can't wait to see what comes out of this," Reggie said as he followed the bustle and watched the policemen.</p><p>"Oh, I'm sure after all these years they'll have solved the case by now, or at least they'll have developed a story about what happened to Jake Willers," said Alex, who didn't hope for too much, but rather kept his feet on the ground, even though in his situation it was hard to keep his feet on the ground and to trust his eyes.</p><p>"What do you think happened then?" asked Reggie who noticed that Alex's mind was already drifting again.</p><p>"Good question, maybe he couldn't stand it at home anymore and just had to get away from there. Or maybe he's involved in some crime and got kidnapped. Could be anything," Alex said, admitting that he was now thinking about what happened then after all. He always thought Luke, Reggie and he were the only strange case back then, because there were certainly files on them, but now that he thought about it, much more happened back then. "I think so too," Reggie said, blowing the air out of his lungs.</p><p>"I don't even want to know what evil criminals were on the road back then," he added with a mumble.</p><p>"You haven't changed much now. The world today is no different than it was then. True, there are things now that we didn't have then, but there are still enough people who are evil criminals," Alex said.</p><p>"You mean people like Bobby?" asked Reggie and Alex nodded.</p><p>"Not just people like Bobby, but murderers and everything around them," Alex leaned his head against the wall behind him and looked at the ceiling.</p><p>"Did you ever wonder what Bobby's life was like after we were gone?" he asked Reggie.</p><p>"Not really. I rather forgot about him a long time ago and never gave it a thought," Reggie said, whose honesty was once again unparalleled.</p><p>"Seriously? You forgot about him?" asked Alex and Reggie nodded.</p><p>"I've never really got on well with him. We just never really got along and Bobby has always been someone who only thought about himself. I'm sure he didn't care what happened to us back then. I'm sure he didn't even bother to look into how we died," Reggie said.</p><p>"And now you can see what he's turned into. He just sold Luke's songs as his, if that's not cheeky. And now he lives in a mansion and has the coolest life ever. He's swimming in money and has no worries, while we sit here, live in a studio and pretty much have nothing except ourselves and of course Julie," Reggie added and Alex could only agree with him. Reggie was right. Bobby had turned into a person who only thinks of himself, doesn't follow the rules and now lives a life that was actually for all of them.</p><p>"But he did it. The dream Luke always had has come true for Bobby," said Alex, who was already hurting just to say the words. Luke was still pissed at Bobby, who was now not only called Trevor Wilson and had a daughter who is like when he was younger. No, he was now living a dream that Luke had wanted. Luke had worked hard for it and put up with a lot, and now it was all gone. No, Trevor or Bobby, whatever they called him, he had never been a nice person.</p><p>"I'm sure Luke will think of some more ways to get back at Bobby," Reggie said, scratching his back as he pressed himself against the wall.</p><p>"He's not going to let this whole thing go. Not even now that he gets to live his dream after all," Reggie was sure. Luke would surely strike again in the near future, until everything was cleared up and Bobby finally admitted what he had done.</p><p>"I can imagine that very well, but if I'm honest then we shouldn't bother with him. We've achieved what we wanted," said Alex, who never liked revenge and always tried to avoid it.</p><p>"We don't have to sneak into his house anymore. He should be able to see us now. We can just turn up and confront him directly," Reggie said.</p><p>"Reg, I feel like you've changed too. I've never seen you come up with ideas as good as you have lately, without any bullshit," Alex said and looked at Reggie who was smiling at him.</p><p>"I just feel good. Almost like I've got a whole new energy in me that's changed me," Reggie said as the policeman came running back to the counter. The two stood up.</p><p>"So, here's everything I could find on this Jake Willers. Now if you would fill this out for me so I have confirmation of who I loaned the file to?", The policeman handed Alex a piece of paper, Alex signed and handed it back to him. When the policeman looked at the signature his expression changed and he looked at Alex questioningly.</p><p>"Hmm, funny," he muttered.</p><p>"I just got my hands on a file about an Alex Mercer who died in 1995. And if I remember correctly, there was a photo in it, too," the policeman said.</p><p>"Um yeah, my father's name is Alex too," Alex said, clearly embarrassed by the situation.</p><p>"Anyway, I'll see you around," Reggie pulled Alex outside with him. "Looks like he recognised you," Reggie said after the two had stopped a few metres from the police station to see if they had been followed. But no police officer followed them.</p><p>"This is not good at all. What if he did recognise me and now he's going to go through the files again?", Alex ran his fingers through his hair.</p><p>"What's going to happen even if he does?" asked Reggie, who wasn't particularly worried.</p><p>"Jeez Reg, this is not good. This is not good at all. This is a disaster. They're going to find out that you and I are friends. They'll find out about Luke that way too. And they certainly won't be able to explain how it is that we're all still alive even though the files say we're dead," Alex just started talking and Reggie had trouble stopping him.</p><p>"It's all right now, okay? Everything will be fine, just don't worry about it now and try to forget about it. You're driving yourself crazy, crazier than it already is," Reggie said and Alex snorted.</p><p>"Alright, let's go back to the studio now. I'm really going crazy here otherwise," Reggie nodded and the two of them made their way back to the studio.</p><p>"You know, it's just weird. I can't deal with it. I'd just like to understand why it's all happening, and why it's happening to us!", Alex said when they were just outside the studio and just turning into the driveway.</p><p>"Why have we become ghosts? What is our unfinished business? And why can't we find them?", Alex had too many questions for Reggie to know the answer to. How he would love to help his friend but didn't know how. He didn't know what was going on and why it was happening to them any more than the others did.</p><p>"I feel like I'm the only one who is thinking about this and finding it strange. We don't live in a world where things like this are taken for granted!" said Alex and they reached the gate of the studio.</p><p>"We will find the answer to this, but it will take time. It won't just get easier overnight. You know how our lives were before. It wasn't easy for any of us!", Reggie said and he had to think of his parents who had only argued before he died. He didn't even know where they had moved to, except that where their house had once been, there was now a shop selling bicycles.</p><p>"We are completely on our own. Our parents don't live here anymore, except for Luke's, but he avoids them instead of solving things that are overdue. And us? We're just here with nothing!" said Alex, opening the door to the studio.</p><p>"We have Luke and Julie. And we have Ray! " Reggie said and Alex looked at him.</p><p>" Ray? He can't even see you. He doesn't know anything about all the conversations you've had with him! ", Alex said and shook his head. How could he have believed for one brief moment that Reggie had become normal? That is not and will never be possible.</p><p>" But at least he listens to me.", Reggie said and hurried after Alex who had already gone to Julie and Luke who had just finished writing the new song.</p><p>"So, what's your situation?" asked Alex, glancing at the many papers lying all over the floor. Some of them were crumpled, others were just lying on the floor with a few words and phrases on them. Others were blank.</p><p>" Now I remember where this mess looked so familiar!" he said with a smile and Reggie put the file on the table.</p><p>"We got this." he said proudly and Luke looked questioningly at Alex, then Reggie and then Alex.</p><p>"Don't ask!" said Alex</p><p>"It wasn't my idea!" he added as Luke went to take the file but Julie beat him to it.</p><p>"Jake Willers?" she looked questioningly at the writing on the file.</p><p>"What do you want with a missing persons case?" she asked them both.</p><p>"This isn't just any missing persons case, this is from our time," Reggie said.</p><p>"That was one of the big issues everyone was dealing with back then. To this day we don't know what exactly happened and how it ended," Reggie took the file from Julie's hands, put it back on the table and opened the first page. " We want to look into something that might help us," he explained. On the first page was the picture of Jake Willers. Jake was a blond boy with long blond hair, blue eyes and a scar on his left cheek. Actually, he looked very nice. Like someone you'd like to hang out with and have a good chat with, Julie thought, but if she wasn't mistaken about that.</p><p>"How did you find out about Jake anyway? That was ages ago, wasn't it?" asked Luke, who had to admit that he was also interested in this case.</p><p>"Well, we were looking for Willi!", Alex told me meekly. Luke wasn't very good at Willi since he had found out that he had something to do with Caleb. Alex didn't hold it against him, but he knew Willi didn't like it and had to do it. He had no choice. And he didn't stand a chance against Caleb.</p><p>"You were looking for Willi?" asked Luke, looking at Alex stunned.</p><p>"It's not what you think Luke. Willi only did it because he had to. He can't do anything against Caleb. He's powerless. Please understand that!" said Alex, who didn't feel like talking about Willi now and breaking out into an argument. There were more important things now, like the Jake Willers case.</p><p>"Okay, whatever you say. Then we'll look at that now, but we'll talk about Willi later!", Luke said a little grumpily. Actually, he had hoped that Alex wouldn't think about Willi after the thing with Caleb, but apparently he was wrong. Alex seemed to be very attached to Willi.</p><p>"Can someone explain to me what you want with the Jake Willers case," Julie asked, interrupting Luke and Alex.</p><p>"I'd like to have a say in this," Julie crossed her arms and looked at the three boys with a steady gaze.</p><p>"You guys are acting like this is something really important. So? May I finally know?", Julie made a short hand gesture that said something like "go ahead" then she looked at Luke, Reggie and Alex again.</p><p>"All right. Jake Willers was very well known. And he just disappeared one day without a trace. He was also a musician like us, but not in a band. He was a solo artist. A very famous one, in fact, who became famous through an accident. Actually, a Michael Jackson concert was supposed to take place, but Michael didn't show up and Jake took this chance and performed in front of over 500,000 people. They liked him so much that from then on he had monthly gigs, got a lot of money and was everyone's favourite. That's why his disappearance was such a big issue! ", Luke told us, he too could remember the case very well.</p><p>"Okay, so it says here that he was last seen on the day of another concert...! ", Julie stopped and looked at the file she had just read out, stunned. What it said could not possibly be true.</p><p>"But... That's not possible!" she stammered, taking a step backwards.</p><p>"What's going on?" asked Luke while Alex took the file from Julie's hand and took a look himself. He turned pale and faltered. Reggie was able to support him just in time to keep him from falling to the floor.</p><p>"You don't believe this! You won't believe this. It just can't be!" said Alex and grabbed his forehead after he had regained his footing and was no longer swaying. He put the file on the table.</p><p>"He hasn't been found yet, but the last time he was seen he was in an alley next to the Orpheum," Alex said and Luke and Reggie stared at him as if they had seen a ghost, an evil ghost.</p><p>"What now? So he had been outside the Orpheum just before he disappeared?" asked Luke who was still not so clear about the whole thing.</p><p>"Wait a minute. So if he was in an alley next to the Orpheum when he disappeared, then that could mean something!" Julie suddenly realised what the Jake Willers case had to do with Luke, Reggie and Alex. There was indeed a connection, even if none of them wanted to admit it. But there was and it was very clear. But Julie seemed to be the only one who had noticed it.</p><p>"What do you think?" asked Luke, looking at her hopefully.</p><p>"Well? Don't you think?", Julie looked at them. No, they didn't know what she meant. Standing in front of her were three former dead people who had become ghosts and were now human again, but couldn't read minds. The world was already a strange place.</p><p>"Well, that it has something to do with the Orpheum. His disappearance and the thing with you guys!" said Julie excitedly.</p><p>"But we were at that hotdog guy's place when we died and not at the Orpheum?" said Reggie, who remembered exactly how that night had gone.</p><p>"It doesn't have to mean anything, maybe it has something else to do with what happened before!" said Julie, insisting.</p><p>"Can you remember what exactly happened that night? Every little detail could be important!", Julie looked pleadingly at the boys.</p><p>"Well, we gave out shirts to fans, rehearsed again, and had a conversation with a woman named Rose!", Reggie said and Julie faltered.</p><p>"With Rose?" she asked and the boys nodded.</p><p>"Yes, I remember the woman. Her name was Rose and she worked there. She said it was just a little part-time job she had behind the counter and that she really liked it there because she would earn a bit more money!" said Alex and he too remembered the evening.</p><p>"Did she say anything else to you? " asked Julie, who couldn't shake the feeling that this Rose was her mother.</p><p>"No. We went out for dinner. But she was still talking to Bobby when we left. He didn't come with us, this apparent vegetarian!", Luke spat out the last words more than he said them.</p><p>"I need to talk to him!", Before the boys could say anything else, Julie had stormed out of the studio and just left them standing there.</p><p>"Where's she going now. Not to Bobby's, is she?", Luke looked after Julie but she had disappeared so quickly that he could no longer see her.</p><p>"Who cares, but she seems to know more than we do!", Reggie said and he and Alex flopped down on the couch.</p><p>"Let's have a look at your song. We can't wait to hear what you've written!" said Reggie and as he said the words Luke's mood changed again and he sat down with a beaming smile to his two friends and showed them the song he had composed with Julie.</p><p>"It's really good. You guys are really great together when it comes to songwriting!", Reggie praised and Luke nodded.</p><p>"Julie is just a talent when it comes to writing songs. It's just in her blood. It's like the music flows inside her.", Luke smiled and Alex could feel how Luke felt.</p><p>"Now let's be honest, you like her a lot. More than just as a colleague in your band.", Alex said and Luke nodded.</p><p>"I know that's totally weird. It shouldn't be, but with her I feel like we're exactly the same even though we've gone two completely different ways!", Luke sat back. He couldn't even count how often he thought about Julie. He felt he had to think about her all the time and always wanted to be near her, not only when they were playing music.</p><p>"Why don't you just tell her then? I'm sure she would even like it if you told her. If she doesn't already know!" said Reggie and Luke winced.</p><p>"How would she know?" he asked and Alex suppressed a giggle.</p><p>"Bro, pretty much everyone knows about you guys. Even Julie's friends and fans. When we perform it's obvious how much you like her, it's not just us who see it. Everyone sees it!" said Alex and Luke put his hands over his face.</p><p>"Oh man how embarrassing. I didn't know that. I'm nowhere near ready to tell her. I need more time!" said Luke while hiding his face behind his hands.</p><p>"It doesn't matter, even if she knows now, she'll still be happy when you tell her," Alex said, pulling Luke's hands away from his face so he had to look at them both again.</p><p>"You think so? I don't. I'm a few years older than her too, aren't I!" said Luke</p><p>"Oh no, it doesn't make any difference, don't worry about that. We've got it all under control," Reggie said and Luke nodded hesitantly.</p><p>"Only there will come a time when you have to tell her. Otherwise it may be too late," Alex said.</p><p>"I know, I know you're right. Yes I have to tell her. Soon," Luke said quietly. "But now again about Willi-", Luke said and Alex rolled his eyes.</p><p>"God Luke, I like him and I will always like him. He's special to me, someone I've never had before in my life-", Alex said.</p><p>"That's not what I mean!" said Luke, not letting Alex finish.</p><p>"What I meant was, I'd like to help you find him!", Luke finished his sentence.</p><p>"What do you mean? I thought you didn't like him because he had something to do with Caleb," Alex looked at Luke questioningly.</p><p>"That's true too. I don't like him, but I don't like to see you so sad just because we don't know what's up with Willi, so I'll help you find him no matter what it takes!" said Luke</p><p>"Because somehow we are all chasing a phantom",</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Julie was standing in front of the house of Trevor and Carrie Wilson, her former best friend who only caused trouble wherever she could. Actually, Julie hated being here. She was never looking for trouble, in fact she wanted to be able to just talk to Carrie normally again. But that would never be the case again. It had been the holidays for a few days and she hadn't seen Nick or Carrie in the last two days</p><p>She took a deep breath and pressed the doorbell. It wasn't long before Carrie opened the door.</p><p>"Oh, hello Julie," Carrie said, a shy smile on her face.</p><p>She didn't look her usual self though. She wasn't wearing make up or any weird expensive clothes, no, she looked very normal.</p><p>"Uhh hi Carrie, um is your dad around by any chance?" asked Julie, still unable to believe that Carrie looked so different, so normal.</p><p>"Yeah, he's upstairs in his room doing his daily yoga exercises. Come on in! He should be done soon!" said Carrie and Julie pushed past her into the house. The last time she was here was for Luke, Reggie and Alex. The three of them had been out looking for Bobby and had given him a good scare.</p><p>"So? Are you planning your next concert yet?" asked Carrie after they had sat down in the kitchen and she had filled two glasses with juice.</p><p>"Well, we're writing songs now, but we don't know when we'll be performing again yet!" said Julie, wondering about Carrie. Normally she wasn't interested in others, it was always about her. But somehow she seemed to have changed too. Carrie no longer gave the impression that she didn't care about others.</p><p>"Sounds exciting! I have to admit, I thought your performance at the Orpheum was really cool," Carrie said and smiled at Julie, who didn't know whether to take it as a compliment or not. Something inside her told her that she couldn't just trust Carrie again right away, but that she should rather wait a little longer before deciding.</p><p>"My dad's been acting all crazy since that night. You wouldn't believe how he's been acting. It's almost like he's seen a ghost," Carrie snapped Julie out of her thoughts. What had she just said?</p><p>"What do you mean?" asked Julie, who of course knew why Trevor, aka Bobby was acting like that. HE had seen Luke, Reggie and Alex and recognised them. Of course he was then blinded by reality at first and didn't know what was going on around him.</p><p>"Oh, all the time he's looking around like he expects people to be watching him. I've been trying to get him to understand that no one is after him and to calm the hell down, but he doesn't listen to me, he just freaks out even more," Carrie said, having already finished her glass.</p><p>"He'll calm down," Julie said, but she knew Trevor wouldn't recover from this scare that easily.</p><p>"Whatever. If he keeps acting like this, he's going to have a lot of trouble with his producers," said Carrie who knew about her father's life as a star and always benefited from it.</p><p>"Do you know anything about your father's childhood and teenage years?" asked Julie, because she certainly wouldn't be able to talk to Trevor under these circumstances, but maybe Carrie already knew something.</p><p>"About his childhood and teenage years?", confused, Carrie looked up.</p><p>"Well, not exactly, just a few things I know about him," she said then and Julie exhaled. For a moment she had thought Carrie wasn't going to tell her anything and send her back outside.</p><p>"I also found out something about my father the other day, and maybe there are things that happened back then. Our fathers aren't far apart in age," Julie said, hating herself at that moment for the lie she told Carrie just so she could get some information.</p><p>"Well, your house wasn't there before, only the garage was there, and my grandparents' house where my father lived. He also used the garage as a place to play music," Carrie explained and Julie nodded. She already knew this part of the story, but did Carrie?</p><p>"Did your father also make music on his own before, or did he have friends he played music with?" asked Julie, hoping for a proper answer that would strengthen her theory.</p><p>"No. My father has always made music on his own. He told me that himself and he also showed me pictures from back then. He even owned his own van, which he got from my grandparents when he turned 16. It used to belong to my grandpa," Carrie told me and Julie just nodded again and said nothing more. It was clear that Trevor had not told his daughter the truth, but had made up a story that he told her. Not only to her, but also to his fans and everyone he has contact with. Maybe it had also been very hard for him when his colleagues simply died. Maybe it had also left traces that he had never shown to anyone because he didn't want to have them himself and had tried to forget them. Julie was at a loss. She just wanted to know about her mother after Luke, Reggie and Alex said that she had talked to Bobby after they left to eat their hot dogs. So Trevor was the only one who could give her the answers she needed. And she just had to know. Maybe she wouldn't learn anything important, just the usual stories that had been known for a long time, but she didn't give up hope of learning something about her mother that might say something about her death. All Julie wanted was to finally be able to talk to her again. That was all she wanted at the moment, because there was still so much they had to tell each other. This just couldn't be over. Not yet.</p><p>"He's a talent too," Julie said, though she didn't mean it. Trevor had no talent at all. But when she thought about it again, he did have a talent. He was pretty good at stealing songs from others and selling them as his own. That was one of the reasons why Julie hated Trevor, after she had found out from Luke that the songs were his and not Trevor's. "I agree with you.</p><p>"I agree with you there. All the great songs he wrote. That's exactly what started his career," Carrie gushed about her father. If she only knew how it really was, she wouldn't talk about him like that anymore. She probably wouldn't even see her father as a star anymore, but as a thief who stole songs from a dead man. Yeah right, that's what Trevor could be called. Someone who didn't even respect dead people and could keep his hands off their stuff.</p><p>"But why do you care about all this anyway?" asked Carrie finally and Julie took a breath.</p><p>"Well, you know my mom died recently. And I recently found out something and I'd like to know if it's true or if I've been lied to. And your father could really help me get to the bottom of it," she said and Carrie listened carefully and then nodded.</p><p>"I know just about everything about my father. Maybe I can help you too. What kind of questions do you have? And what do you want to know?" asked Carrie and Julie felt it necessary to talk to her about it now, even though Flynn didn't want her to try to make proper contact with Carrie again.</p><p>"Okay well then, I guess I'll have to turn to you. So, I was wondering if your father and my mother ever spoke. Around 1995 during that time," Julie said and Carrie looked at her questioningly.</p><p>"Okay wow, I really wasn't expecting a question like that, but yes they did talk back then. My father told me he met her at the Orpheum just after a dress rehearsal and talked to her. After that they even met more often," Carrie said and Julie couldn't believe that her mother and Trevor had ever done anything together. It sounded totally wrong somehow, but even if it was true, then maybe it was actually a good thing.</p><p>"Do you know if they talked about certain topics, or what they talked about together?" asked Julie, but Carrie couldn't help her with this question.</p><p>"No, I'm sorry, you'll have to ask my father yourself. I'm afraid I don't know," said Carrie, pouring another glass of juice.</p><p>"It was worth a try," Julie said, smiling at Carrie.</p><p>"But what makes you think that my father and your mother used to do things together?" asked Carrie and Julie faltered. She couldn't possibly be telling her the truth could she?</p><p>"Well...so...", Julie hesitantly started to tell Carrie about all the things that had happened in the last few weeks. Carrie just sat there staring at Julie with wide eyes.</p><p>"I know this all sounds so crazy and it's okay if you don't believe me. You wouldn't be the first," Julie said after telling her everything.</p><p>"It's beyond crazy," Carrie told her and Julie nodded. If someone told her a story like that, she wouldn't believe it either. No. It was just too crazy to be true, and yet it was the truth.</p><p>"So your actual holograms aren't holograms after all, but ghosts?" asked Carrie.</p><p>"They were ghosts. Now they have become human again. But don't ask me how such a thing can be possible, we all don't know.", Julie took a breath.</p><p>"Wow. That's really crazy. So you make music with ghosts? How cool is that, musical ghosts. I've never heard of that before," said Carrie who didn't think it was as bad as Julie thought it was. No. Carrie's reaction to it was far too normal.</p><p>"Well, they are somehow connected to my mother, at least we think so. That's probably why I could see them all the time and everyone else could only see them when we were making music together," Julie remembered again the many songs she and Luke had written and sung together.</p><p>"You know, I had actually given up on music for myself and didn't want anything to do with it anymore, but then Luke, Reggie and Alex just showed up out of nowhere and it changed everything. All of a sudden I had this energy inside me that I can't describe. But it was only because of that energy that I started making music again," Julie said about the day Luke, Reggie and Alex first showed up. She remembered the feeling she had the morning after, and she remembered the music class she got kicked out of, and got back in the very next day after they helped her give a really cool performance.</p><p>"I have to say, I wasn't expecting a story like that, but I can understand you and I don't begrudge you that," Carrie said.</p><p>"Because your performance at the Orpheum, and the ones at school, were really brilliant. I can understand why they chose you and not someone else or me. You're just too good a team," Carrie added.</p><p>"Thank you, I'm really glad to hear that, but yeah right now we've got all these other problems and we don't get to make music. I can't concentrate on it anyway," Julie said dejectedly. She really wanted to play music again and just forget the world around her, but it wasn't easy. It wasn't like it was before. Luke was only thinking about his parents and looking for a way to talk to them again without them freaking out just because he had reappeared. Alex was only thinking about Willi and was busy worrying because Willi just wasn't here anymore since Caleb disappeared. And Reggie? He was actually still the same as before and tried to be there for everyone, even if he couldn't be there for everyone at the same time, but he did his best to make people smile.</p><p>"You know, actually it was said that the boys have something to do so that they can go to the other side and are no longer ghosts in the world. But that wasn't true. They had to play at the Orpheum, that's what we did, and now they're not gone, they've become human," Julie told Carrie. She just didn't know what to do and maybe Carrie knew something, or at least had an idea how it could go on with the boys, and why all this was happening.</p><p>"You know, I thought at first it was just the one thing and then I'd never see them again, but now they're still here and I think I'm going to lose it.",</p><p>"Now, calm down. I'm sure you'll figure it out. You always have a plan for everything and know how and what you have to do to make things better," Carrie said and squeezed Julie's hand.</p><p>"You just have to give it time to develop. Don't avoid things, just deal with them. That's the only way you'll know what's right in the end," Carrie smiled.</p><p>"Thank you.", Julie said and smiled at her too.</p><p>"It really helped to talk to you about it, but I'll see about getting back home now,", Julie said goodbye and was off the Wilson property after a short while. She made her way back to the studio, but first she wanted to go into the house for a quick dinner. Her father and Carlos were probably waiting for her.</p><p>"And you're sure you don't want to talk to them? Don't you think they've waited long enough for that?" asked Alex as the three of them huddled behind the large bushes that were in Luke's parents' garden.</p><p>"Are you crazy? They'll completely freak out if they see me, you or Reggie. They won't believe their eyes and my mum will faint again like she did on Halloween," Luke said and Alex remembered the Halloween Luke was talking about.</p><p>"Don't you dare talk about it," Luke hissed just as Alex opened his mouth to say something.</p><p>"I'm not saying anything!", Alex crossed his arms. Luke had to be totally exaggerating again just because he couldn't decide what he wanted.</p><p>"Maybe you should talk to Julie first. She'll probably go with you to your parents' house and talk things over," Reggie said, but Luke wasn't sure if he wanted to talk to his parents any time soon. Somehow it didn't quite fit yet and he preferred to be sure to hit the right moment before he did anything.</p><p>"You know, all this time I thought I really needed to talk to them about some things, but now that I'm standing here watching them, I'm not so sure anymore," Luke murmured as he watched his parents sitting together in the kitchen, eating dinner. How he would love to sit at this table with them again and just feel that he had someone by his side who was there for him even in the bad times. But his parents didn't want him to make music even then, and that was also the reason why Luke had to leave and never came back. He would have come back for sure if he hadn't died. And on a hot dog, too. How embarrassing is that?</p><p>"Well, don't go to them and let them think you're dead and don't think about them anymore," said Alex, who still had his arms crossed and was looking at Luke.</p><p>"Now don't rush me. I'll think of something, but it has to be well thought out, otherwise I'll just scare them," Luke replied.</p><p>"That's why I told you to talk to Julie. She always knows what to do and can help you," Reggie rolled his eyes.</p><p>"But nobody listens to me here," he added.</p><p>"That's not true either. They do listen to you, just in a different way that you don't understand," Alex tried.</p><p>"Oh? Which I don't understand? It's okay, I get it, more than any of you," now Reggie was offended.</p><p>"Oh great. What a perfect mess.", Alex muttered, thinking it better to leave his two friends alone for today. There was just no value in that right now. After all, they wouldn't even listen to him.</p><p>"You know, it's not easy. In fact, nothing is easy," Luke mumbled, still looking at his parents with tears in his eyes.</p><p>"We really need to find out why this is happening to us and make it stop. We're all going to go crazy.", determined, he straightened up.</p><p>"What are you going to do now? Reggie and I already tried, but we can't even find Willi, who I'm sure can help us," Alex said, looking after Luke, who was patting the dirt off his black jeans.</p><p>"Or Caleb," Reggie said.</p><p>"You're not serious, Reg," Luke and Alex both looked at Reggie at the same time.</p><p>"It's okay, I'm just saying," Reggie raised his hands and said nothing more, but looked a little closer at the plant he was hiding behind. All of a sudden this plant was extremely interesting.</p><p>"So, let's think about what we know about Willi and Caleb. Maybe we can find out where they are," Luke said and looked with a slightly disgusted look at Reggie, who had come a little closer to the plant.</p><p>"Okay good, so we don't know that much about Willi. He likes to skate through pedestrian zones, play pranks and take complete advantage of life as a ghost," Alex said and pondered what else he knew about Willi, but in doing so he realised that he actually knew almost nothing about the cute ghost boy. And this fact made him sad again and made him worry even more.</p><p>"Well, that's something. And what about Caleb?" asked Luke, but he was already answering the question himself.</p><p>"He's evil, knows no boundaries and will try anything to get free spirits into his club," Alex nodded.</p><p>"Which is totally horrible and dull, by the way," Luke added.</p><p>"Reg! Don't eat the plant! Get away from there!", Alex just managed to drag Reggie away from the plant in time before he would have bitten into one of the leaves.</p><p>"Oh man, can we please go? This is all getting a bit too much for my nerves around here!", Alex said, not letting go of Reggie but pulling him with him as they walked away from the house and onto the street.</p><p>"So, we don't know where his weird loser club is, because only Willi was able to get us there. So we can forget about that right now. It's not going to do us much good," Luke stated as they walked towards the setting sun, with the sunset directly in front of them. The sky had turned red and on the horizon the sun disappeared behind the houses.</p><p>"And we haven't found him in the places he likes to hang out either. So he must be somewhere else, maybe somewhere we haven't been or we don't know. But that would be nothing new with Caleb. He likes to cover his tracks," Alex said while Reggie tried to get out of Alex's grip but Alex wouldn't let him go.</p><p>"Forget it, or you'll do something we'll regret," Alex said and grabbed him a little harder.</p><p>"Well, there's only one option then. We have to wait until we find a trail he might have laid for us," Luke said, sounding determined.</p><p>"But he doesn't even know we're looking for him. How is he supposed to lay a trail for us?", Alex asked a little uncertainly.</p><p>"Quite simply because I think he would give anything to be able to come back to you. As many times as he's spied on us, I wouldn't be surprised that he already has an idea of how to get your attention without really having to do anything about it," Luke said, grinning cheekily at Alec.</p><p>"Honestly now? It's not exactly the right time for any jokes, Luke," Alex said but Luke had really meant it.</p><p>"Hey, I wouldn't be saying something like that if I wasn't," Luke said, boxing Alex against his shoulder.</p><p>"Willi is just as attached to you as you are to him. I can tell every time I see you two," Luke winked at Alex.</p><p>"You mean like how people can tell you're into Julie?", Alex grinned back just as cheekily.</p><p>"That...That has nothing to do with it!", Luke blushed. He couldn't keep it a secret from his two friends anymore though. They just knew too much about it already for him to prove them wrong, which he didn't want to, because they were right.</p><p>"Okay fine, you guys are right. Yeah I'm into her.", Luke said after getting a prompting stare from Alex.</p><p>"But we've already talked about how it's not that easy with me and Julie," Luke said, not wanting to talk about it now, at least not at this moment. They had to sort out some other important issues, after all, and for that they had some work to do. To get back to the studio, they had to walk through the small front garden, where the window directly faced the Molina family's kitchen. Julie, Ray and Carlos were sitting there having dinner and talking. Luke, Reggie and Alex were walking past the window crouched down when Alex stopped his two friends.</p><p>"Wait a minute." he said, gesturing to the window. Through the thick bushes and plants in front of the window, the boys looked inside. The window was slightly open and so they could hear what Julie, Ray and Carlos were saying to each other.</p><p>"Now, Julie. Now you're really going to have to explain to me how you do this with these holograms," Ray said, shoving a fork full of noodles into his mouth.</p><p>"Oh dad, it's mega complicated and you wouldn't understand no matter how I explained it to you," Julie said and had stopped eating, but that was probably more because her plate was already empty.</p><p>"Well listen, I'm not that old after all and I'm interested in things like this that my daughter has set up all by herself. Because you're a bit of a celebrity now with your band," Ray said, insisting on wanting to know how Julie had done it with the holograms.</p><p>"I'm interested, too, by the way," Carlos said with his mouth full, catching a warning look from Ray.</p><p>"Carlos? We don't talk with our mouths full," he reminded Julie's brother of the family rules. That's when Julie had an idea.</p><p>"Dad? About the holograms, the boys are from Sweden and would like to come over for some time so we can practice together in real life. Would that be possible?", Julie hadn't felt as stupid as she did after this lie for a long time. But sometimes a lie was better than the truth, as the truth would bring many a problem and Julie wanted to avoid any problems for as long as possible.</p><p>"Yes of course!" said Ray and Julie looked at her father.</p><p>"What now?" she couldn't understand the world. He had just agreed to let them come, even though they had been living in the studio for a few weeks and he had no idea?</p><p>"They are welcome to come. I want to meet them and talk to them," Ray said with a smile on his face. Julie didn't know exactly how she felt right now. On the one hand, she was sorry that she hadn't told her father the truth, and she was sorry to know that he might never know the truth. And if he ever did, she was sorry that he wouldn't understand and accept it, just because it was hard to believe such a story.</p><p>"You're the best dad ever!" Julie exclaimed before taking her plate and cutlery to the kitchen.</p><p>"I'm about to make a phone call to Flynn and I don't want to be disturbed right now. And I'm still practicing a new song, it's secret," Julie said, then she ran outside towards the studio. Luke, Reggie and Alex had in the meantime left the window and arrived in the studio and sat down on the couch, waiting for Julie to arrive at any moment.</p><p>"So, the Swedish guys from your hologram band want to come over for a while?", Luke greeted Julie as she came into the studio and closed the two big doors that looked more like two gates again. She flicked on the light.</p><p>"Hey, what else was I supposed to say?", She sat down on a small stool in front of the small table and sat directly opposite the three boys.</p><p>"At least he didn't ask any more questions, at least no questions about you guys, but if you've been eavesdropping, you probably already know that," she said, smiling. Once again, it was clear that Luke had to make his comment on everything.</p><p>"If I had told him the truth, he would have either freaked out and thought I was crazy, or he would have sent me to my room to study," Julie said and took one of the small chocolate bars that were on the table. In the last two days she had cleaned up and changed the studio a bit together with Luke and Reggie. There was also new furniture, but she hadn't changed anything and had left everything as her mother had decorated it.</p><p>"How did you get on?" asked Alex and Julie nodded strongly.</p><p>"That's right, you don't know yet. So Trevor, or as you like to call him, Bobby, was even out with my mother a few times. Almost like a date. Carrie told me," Julie said about her meeting with Carrie, which had gone very well.</p><p>"And so she really believed everything you said? I thought you weren't friends at all and didn't get along?", Reggie now asked.</p><p>"That's true too. We used to be friends, but the thing with her father just changed everything between us. And Carrie suddenly didn't care about hanging out with people like me anymore," Julie said, realising how much it depressed her to talk about it.</p><p>"But now everything seems to be getting better again. At least she believed everything I said and told me something about Bobby," she said again with a smile.</p><p>"But I don't think you'll like it so much," she added a little more quietly.</p><p>"So what have you been able to find out about Bobby?" asked Luke, hardly able to stand waiting any longer.</p><p>"Well, that Bobby aka Trevor is a thief, we already know that, but he's also a damn good liar who only thinks about himself," Julie said, sounding a little angry. To be honest, it made her angry too, because now Luke, Reggie and Alex were again the ones who had no one, even though they had fought so hard to finally become famous.</p><p>"What did he do?" asked Luke, bending over the table with his face a little closer.</p><p>"He claimed he'd always been in the music business on his own. He never played in a band but wrote all the songs on his own and has always made music on his own. Which of course isn't true at all," Julie told me and Luke's eyes seemed to change colour. The normally so light blue eyes turned darker all at once. They had turned almost completely dark blue by the time Julie had finished speaking.</p><p>"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Luke, standing up with a jerk.</p><p>"Not only does he steal MY songs," he started pacing.</p><p>"But he claims that we never existed in his life!", Luke finished his sentence, building up more and more hatred.</p><p>"Now calm down, Luke. What I'm interested in here is why he says that," Julie said and Luke actually sat back down and listened, looking grim.</p><p>"Does it even matter anymore?" asked Luke angrily, narrowing his eyes.</p><p>"I think it does, because people actually always have a reason when they repress something and banish it from their lives," said Julie, who had met a few people in the last year since her mum's death who hadn't asked anything good of her.</p><p>"And what reasons would he have had, please?" asked Luke, clenching his hands into fists.</p><p>"Maybe he was forced into it?" said Reggie.</p><p>"Ahhh, I don't think so. He's never let anyone tell him anything," Alex said to Reggie.</p><p>"But maybe that's not such a stupid thought. Remember? Caleb showed up just like that shortly after you came here as ghosts. What if he was also with Bobby shortly after you died?", said Julie who had already grappled with this thought.</p><p>"You mean he had a visit from Caleb? Twenty-five years ago?" asked Alex and Julie nodded.</p><p>"Maybe people can also see Caleb if they have recently lost someone in their life," Julie said again.</p><p>"So it could well be that Caleb had a hand in this and made him forget you and not even remember what actually happened, apart from your death he shouldn't remember anything.", The boys looked at Julie thoughtfully. As stupid as the whole thing sounded, it would make sense. They knew Caleb too badly to say he wasn't capable of such a thing. Maybe Caleb could do a lot more they didn't know about. Maybe he wasn't just a ghost, but had other things up his sleeve that he could do. You never knew with him.</p><p>"Okay, yeah that makes sense really. Maybe Caleb made sure he couldn't remember us," Luke said, but Julie wasn't quite sure.</p><p>"I don't think he can't remember you guys, if anything he just can't remember his time with you guys, but he can remember yourselves," she said and Luke looked at her questioningly.</p><p>"How is that possible, please? And why do you sound so sure about it?" he asked her and Julie took a breath.</p><p>"Because Carrie told me he must have seen something that spooked him. Ever since our concert, where he was a spectator by the way, he's just been hiding in his room and acting weird," Julie said</p><p>"So he saw us?", Alex got wide-eyed. Of course it all made sense now. If Bobby had seen them, then he must have just got a fright. If only for the reason that Luke, Reggie and Alex still looked the same and only Bobby had grown older. What kind of fright must that be? Alex got goosebumps.</p><p>"So I'm kind of scared of myself right now!" said Alex, running his hands over his arms.</p><p>"Why is that?", Reggie looked at Alex questioningly and confused as he ran his hands over his arms and pressed himself deeper into the couch.</p><p>"Because he's seen us and we're the only ones who haven't changed a bit over all these years, only he's changed and had a normal life for 25 years since then and all of a sudden we show up here again and mess everything up," Alex said quietly, sinking even deeper into the couch.</p><p>"You don't have to be afraid of yourself about that!" said Luke, squinting his eyes again as he showed his teeth.</p><p>"He deserves to be scared, doesn't he? Why should he be able to run away from his destiny and his past and we can't?", Luke was right again and Reggie and Alex, as well as Julie could only agree with him about that.</p><p>"Well, I wouldn't call it that," Alex started but was interrupted again by Luke.</p><p>"No question Alex, he deserved that. He's not a good person. He never has been and he never will be," Luke stood back up and stretched for a moment.</p><p>"So what are you going to do now? You're not going to go back to him and play tricks on him like you did then, are you?", Julie asked cautiously but Luke shook his head.</p><p>"That's too much of my time. No. He'll get what he deserves, but we have better things to do right now and I'd rather concentrate on the important things instead of a thief," Luke took Julie by the hand and pulled her to her feet.</p><p>"We need to find Willi. This is of utmost importance.", Julie nodded while looking into Luke's eyes which had turned back to the bright blue she knew.</p><p>"We were at Luke's parents earlier, by the way," Reggie blurted and Luke turned around indignantly while Alex looked at Reggie pleadingly to just be quiet, but of course it backfired again.</p><p>"Really? And how did it go?" asked Julie, turning back to Luke who was suddenly blushing slightly and saying nothing more.</p><p>"Well, let's put it this way, it didn't go as planned," Alex said after Luke had not commented.</p><p>"Have you spoken to them?" asked Julie but Luke shook his head and looked to the floor.</p><p>"We're working on a strategy so they won't panic when they see Luke or any of us. But it might be a while before the first word is spoken," Alex said and looked at Luke who was not at all pleased and embarrassed by the whole thing.</p><p>"Yeah well, you guys don't have to do it right away. Besides, I'm sure they'll react like Trevor did when they see one of you. Maybe you should just avoid that kind of thing in the future. This is all new even for us," Julie said and lifted Luke's head up by the chin so that he had to look at her.</p><p>"And we'll get that sorted out too. Believe me, all the things that are new to us now, we'll get them right!", Julie smiled at Luke who returned her smile.</p><p>"I hope so," Luke finally said, speaking the words softly so that they could hardly be heard.</p><p>"Good, I'll see you tomorrow then. I've got to run in the house now, Flynn was going to call me and you know how she can be," Julie hugged Luke, said goodbye to Reggie and Alex and left the studio.</p><p>"Gee Julie, what took you so long?", Flynn sounded annoyed. By the time Julie had arrived in her room, Carlos had already told her that her mobile phone had rung several times.</p><p>"I wouldn't wait for it to ring again if I were you. Looks like it's something really important," he had said to her before she had pushed him aside and run into her room.</p><p>"Calm down Flynn, I had something to talk to the boys about," Julie tried to reassure Flynn, who liked to start worrying as soon as Julie didn't answer her in the next few minutes.</p><p>"True. Sometimes I forget that you have three ghosts hiding in your mom's studio," Flynn said and Julie had to grin.</p><p>"They used to be ghosts. Now I'm hiding three cute boys there.", Julie replied and heard Flynn groan.</p><p>"I told you before not to let Luke wrap you up like that. You just can't. You and him, no.", Flynn said and Julie nodded. It hadn't been possible then either, but now everything had changed and things that weren't possible before were suddenly possible.</p><p>"I know Flynn, but things have changed and Nick is kind of untraceable," Julie said, worried about Nick who had just disappeared after the big performance.</p><p>"Oh, he was probably just jealous because you and Luke have been flirting so much lately," Flynn said, and if she were sitting next to Julie right now, she would have already gotten a tap on her shoulder.</p><p>"You think so? Well, it's not my fault and I can understand him being jealous. I was only thinking about Luke when we danced," Julie said quietly.</p><p>"Oh yes, and that was exactly the mistake that led to you not being able to get him out of your head. Why don't you just take Nick? You've always fancied him and now that he's not with Carrie you have a choice," Flynn said, but Julie didn't want to be with Nick. She didn't even know who her heart belonged to and if what was between her and Luke would stay forever or if it would change in the near future.</p><p>"You know, Flynn, I don't want to get into something that isn't right for me after all. I'd rather wait and dwell on the things that touch my heart," Julie said, already thinking about Luke again, who had something he wanted to tell her and hadn't spoken of it since.</p><p>"Oh come on. This thing with you and Luke, how is that going to work? Your dad doesn't know about the boys yet either," Flynn said and Julie nodded.</p><p>"But he'll meet them," Julie countered and Flynn took a deep breath.</p><p>"How come?!" she shouted formally and Julie had to hold her phone inches from her ear.</p><p>"I said to him if he would be okay with the boys coming over for a while and he said yes. He even wanted to meet them and didn't even kind of ask. I just couldn't tell him the truth," Julie said as Flynn got mega excited and couldn't calm down.</p><p>"But that's fantastic!" exclaimed Flynn and Julie nodded again.</p><p>"Now I just hope Carlos doesn't get any stupid ideas again. He's been acting very strangely for the last few days," Julie said, glancing at her locked bedroom door.</p><p>"Because I can very well imagine that he will find out something else and then he won't be able to be stopped," she added.</p><p>"And what about your aunt? Can't she look after Carlos?" asked Flynn, but Julie hadn't heard from her aunt in a few days. She had become strangely quiet and hadn't even come round to bring any food that didn't taste good. Julie hadn't heard from her in general and hadn't seen her aunt for a while. When she looked out of the window at her aunt's house, all the shutters were closed and there was never a light on. It was almost as if her aunt didn't live there any more.</p><p>"I don't know. We haven't heard from her. I think something happened and she's avoiding our house from now on," Julie had to start giggling at these thoughts.</p><p>"What's so funny about that?" asked Flynn who didn't understand why Julie started laughing. Her aunt was annoying, Flynn had heard that before, but she really didn't understand why that would be so funny.</p><p>"You know, back when Carlos was so obsessed with the fact that there were ghosts here, Tia had to deal with him a few times. And when I had Carlos' tablet in my hands the other day, I saw some very funny pictures, including one where my aunt had her face contorted in horror as if she had seen a demon," she laughed and Flynn had to laugh as well.</p><p>"Okay, that explains a lot, of course," Flynn laughed and it took them both a moment to calm down.</p><p>"So what are you going to do when your dad meets the boys?" asked Flynn and Julie had to think for a moment. She hadn't thought about that, at least not yet.</p><p>"Honestly, I don't really know yet. There will probably be some things that happen that no one expects," Julie said, secretly regretting asking her father that. She should have thought that she, Luke, Reggie and Alex would have to answer some questions and that it wouldn't be easy to answer them if they weren't allowed to tell the truth.</p><p>"Oh dear, I hope it goes well then. If you need any help then get in touch with me and I'll come over right away," Flynn said before they both finished their phone call and Julie finally went to bed.</p><p>"Luke? Is that you?" asked Alex as he woke up in the middle of the night because he heard something.</p><p>"Shhh, yes it's me!" replied Luke, whose outline Alex could only make out.</p><p>"What are you doing?", Alex asked sleepily and confused, as he was not at all used to Luke just sneaking out of the studio in the middle of the night. Neither in 2021 nor back in 1995.</p><p>"I can't sleep and I need some fresh air, so I'm going to walk around the streets for a bit and hopefully get a clear head," Luke replied as he reached the two large doors of the studio and grabbed them.</p><p>"Don't stay out too long though. We don't know where Caleb is hanging out, not that he'll ever strike and you're out there all alone," Alex said even before Luke had disappeared out the door and closed the two doors behind him. Luke strolled through the streets with his eyes fixed on the ground. Somehow he had got a headache because he couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about Julie and couldn't get her out of his mind. No matter what he tried, every time he saw her he got lost in her eyes. And only because his mind didn't want to think of anyone else but her.</p><p>"I've got to stop doing this or I'll go crazy!" he said to himself as he pulled his hood over his head from the hoodie he had gotten from Julie.</p><p>"But I can't forget her," he added a moment later, realising how he was already thinking about Julie again without being able to control it. He had never felt this way about a girl before. Not like he had with Julie. This was something completely different that he could not control. It just happened and prevented him from thinking normally and doing something about it.</p><p>But it wasn't that easy. He thought about Julie all the time</p><p>and couldn't do anything about it. His heart had decided for something for the first time, and this decision was the right one forever. Now there was nothing more he could lose, and there was nothing more that could stop him. He just had to tell her, because he was stopping himself from making it happen.</p><p>"Alex is right. Just because we're human again doesn't mean we can't enjoy life. You just have to think about yourself sometimes and learn to appreciate what you have," Luke continued walking as it started to rain lightly. He pulled his hood even deeper into his face and had his eyes down on the ground when he suddenly ran into someone and almost tripped. Looking up, he looked directly into the face of Caleb.</p><p>"Well look who we have here," Caleb had his typical grin on his face and looked sharply at Luke with his piercing eyes. Luke's voice trailed off for a moment and he searched for the right words, but he just couldn't pull himself together.</p><p>"Caleb?" he asked as he took the hood off his head.</p><p>"The real one himself!", Caleb grinned and that grin made Luke angry. If he remembered the pain then he had an incredible hatred for this human again that couldn't be put into words.</p><p>"What do you want? Haven't you done enough already?" hissed Luke, clenching his hands into fists.</p><p>"Oh come on Luke, why are you so mad at me? I see you did well and are back to your old self," Caleb eyed Luke once from top to bottom. Luke thought for a moment that Caleb couldn't believe that Luke, Reggie and Alex had become human again. Because, after all, it was practically and theoretically impossible.</p><p>"How did you guys do it again?" asked Caleb, and Luke was right: he really couldn't believe they were human again.</p><p>"It doesn't matter, does it? So, what do you want? You hardly showed up here just to ask me that question and stare at me stupidly?", Luke didn't feel like talking to Caleb. This man, or more this something didn't deserve to talk to him and steal his valuable time. This wasn't the plan. It wasn't supposed to be like this, not now that they were finally free again and could move around freely and were no longer invisible to others.</p><p>"Now then, how are you talking to me? I really just came to see this for real, because it just can't be possible...", Caleb healed himself strangely and had trouble finding the right words. He kept looking at Luke from top to bottom as if scanning his entire body, not wanting to admit it.</p><p>"How did you do it?" he finally asked, the words coming out of him hesitantly.</p><p>"How did we do what?" asked Luke, still looking angrily at Caleb.</p><p>"Well, that you are now human again. Actually, that couldn't have happened. No, something like that is completely impossible.", Caleb ran his hands through his hair after taking off his hat. Sweat had formed on his forehead and his breath was shaking uncontrollably. Luke didn't know Caleb like that. The man who had usually made a creepy impression on him, always in control of everything, suddenly wasn't.</p><p>"We have no idea.", Luke said dryly after he had calmed down a bit and got his hatred and anger under control.</p><p>"You don't know?" asked Caleb and Luke nodded.</p><p>"But then how is it possible?" asked Caleb again as he paced back and forth in front of Luke now, asking himself the same thing over and over while Luke just watched him.</p><p>"We don't know. We're looking for answers ourselves right now.", Luke said and then wanted to push past Caleb and continue his walk.</p><p>"Stop, you're not going anywhere!", Caleb had moved so fast in front of Luke that he almost walked back into him had he not jumped backwards in fright.</p><p>"Caleb, let me pass!", Luke ordered, but he didn't even think about it, but touched Luke on the arm. Luke felt his strength leave his body and he went down. But before he finally lost consciousness, he felt everything around him dissolve.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Dont forget to leave a review , it helps me a lot thanks</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Where is Luke? We were supposed to rehearse the new songs today," Julie had come into the studio right after class to practice the new songs with Luke, Reggie and Alex for another little gig at their school.<br/>"We don't know.", Reggie said, very worried about his buddy who had just disappeared.<br/>"He went for a little walk last night," Alex told him.<br/>"And you just let him and let him go out by himself?" asked Julie, staring at Alex in disbelief. How could she have thought for a moment again that all was right with the world when she was just the opposite.<br/>"Yeah but I can't forbid him, can I? Besides, we all know he wouldn't listen to me. "Alex defended himself.<br/>"I specifically told him not to stay out so late, and I also warned him about Caleb.", all of a sudden Alex slapped the flat of his hand on his forehead.<br/>"Oh no!" he cried, almost falling over again if Reggie hadn't held him again.<br/>"I think Caleb has Luke in his grip," Alex almost didn't dare say the words, but as hard as it was for him, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Luke would have come back, of course, and he would never have stayed away alone for so long, something had to have happened. Alex knew his friend that well to know what made him tick.<br/>"You've got to be kidding me," Julie settled down on the couch, discouraged.<br/>"Finding him is just as hard as finding Willi," Julie hopelessly propped her face on her hands.<br/>"And I thought today was going to be a normal day for once, but I was wrong again," she added and Reggie sat down with her and ran his hand down her back.<br/>"Nothing's too hard for you, Julie. We'll find a way to find Luke, and to find Willi," Reggie tried to reassure Julie and cheer her up at the same time, but Julie wasn't so sure. A lot had changed in all the times she had known the boys now and she had realised some things. You couldn't rely on life, or your destiny, but you could change it however you wanted. Nothing is impossible anymore, and anyone who said that had no idea of what was really going on around them.<br/>"I just really don't know what to do anymore. So many things have happened and we haven't even solved our own problems yet. And now Luke's gone too.", a tear rolled down Julie's cheek and she quickly wiped it away.<br/>"Let's face it. You don't think we're just going to come up with an idea of how to find Willi overnight. Then surely it will be the same with Luke," Julie straightened up. She didn't want to cry now, and she wasn't allowed to now. She had to keep her wits about her and deal with things. She had to think like Luke now to be able to find him. That was the only way she would succeed and she could take matters into her own hands.<br/>"We're not going to sit here looking at any old files. We're going to do something.", without saying anything to the two boys Julie had left the studio with these words and just left them standing there.<br/>"Well, you have to hand it to her. Her spirit is stronger than we were.", Alex said as he looked thoughtfully at Julie.<br/>"And she's right. We're unlikely to find those two if we keep doing what we're doing," Alex pulled Reggie to his feet.<br/>"I'm sorry to say this now, but we have to get to Bobby," Alex looked at Reggie.<br/>"Oh no, I'm not going to someone who won't let us into his life and has banished us from his life. Who likes our fame for himself and doesn't want to have anything to do with his past. And on top of that, he stole our songs that Luke spent nights working on," Reggie interjected, but Alex silenced him.<br/>"This isn't about what was either. This is about now," Alex said and Reggie wanted to protest again. Never would he go to Bobby aka Trevor and ever have a word with that person.<br/>"So what's it about then?" asked Reggie a little sour and disappointed.<br/>"We need him to help us find Luke," Alex said, straightening his cap.<br/>"How is he going to be able to help us?" asked Reggie again, scratching his head.<br/>"He's never been much help before," he added as a comment Alex could only agree with.<br/>"I had a hard time sleeping tonight, so I thought about it again. It occurred to me that our unpaid bill was not the performance at the Orpheum. But maybe it was also the wrong thing we did. Maybe this is not directly about us, our history or our past. Maybe Bobby has something to do with all this and we can only close the score if he's there?", Reggie thought about Alex's words.<br/>"That doesn't sound so wrong," Reggie stated. <br/>"Still, I don't understand it. Bobby isn't a ghost after all.", Reggie looked questioningly at Alex again.<br/>"That's true, but he was in the band back then. And if it's true, and Caleb might have something to do with Luke disappearing, and the fact that Bobby can't remember anything to do with us, then it would all make sense," Alex pulled Reggie out of the studio with him.<br/>"That's why we should find Julie and take her to Bobby's so we can clear this up as soon as possible and find Luke. Maybe we'll find Willi that way," Alex said and the two of them crept back through the small garden past the kitchen window.<br/>"What I still don't understand though is why all this? Why did Caleb erase Bobby's memory of his time with us, but he himself still knows us? That doesn't make any sense," Reggie muttered as they stood at the kitchen window looking for Julie.<br/>"Maybe this has always been his plan. We don't even really know Caleb. Maybe he was around us back in 1995 and just couldn't quite complete his plan then because something came up, although I can't tell you what it is, it's just a feeling," Alex said<br/>"It's just a feeling? God Alex, if anything happens to Luke it's all our fault," Reggie was right. Alex would rather not think about what could happen to Luke. He just hoped that he, along with Julie, would find him as soon as possible so he wouldn't have to worry anymore.<br/>"You want to what?", Julie was as Alex had already pointed out, not at all pleased with her idea.<br/>"You're going to Bobby's?" she asked the two as they snuck into her room and waited there for Julie.<br/>"Yeah, I think our unfinished business is with him, if it wasn't the gig," Alex was sure this time that Bobby was the missing item.<br/>"So how do you guys figure this whole thing? You can't just ring his doorbell and hope he wants to talk to you. He'll freak out if he sees you like this," Julie was right, but Alex just had to do it.<br/>"It's the only way we can find out why we're human again. I'd like to know if it's going to stay that way or if we're just going to disappear again at some point.", As much as the words hurt, he just had to say it and there was nothing more that would stop him from following his latest lead. When Reggie and he just looked at Julie wordlessly she finally nodded and gave in.<br/>"Fine! We'll do it then, but don't be sad later just because Trevor goes completely nuts and yells at you or runs away from you," Julie took a deep breath and settled down on her bed after shooing Reggie out of it.<br/>"How did you get into my room anyway?" she asked them both and Alex and Reggie looked at each other for a moment, hesitantly Alex took a step forward towards Julie.<br/>"We came in through the window," he blurted out and Julie shook her head.<br/>"Hey, it wasn't that easy to climb the tree and reach your window," Reggie interjected and Alex looked helplessly at his mate. Once again it was the wrong time for such remarks from Reggie but as usual he didn't realise that.<br/>"Okay you know what? Just forget it. I'm just not going to ask anymore!", Julie looked at the two of them. She couldn't stay mad at them for long.<br/>"Do you know what's going on with Luke?" she finally asked, but they couldn't give her an answer except the one she already knew.<br/>"Well, let's go and see Trevor and hope he can help us. Even though I strongly fear it won't go well," Julie got up and ran down the stairs from her room while Reggie and Alex climbed out of the window again and came down over the big tree to the front door. Then they made their way to Trevor's. Julie hesitated as they stood outside the door with Reggie and Alex and she didn't press the doorbell.<br/>"You know, it feels totally weird if we just ring the doorbell and he sees you," Julie turned to them.<br/>"It has to be done. I'd like to avoid it too, but we really don't have a choice. He's the only one who can help us," Alex said, holding Julie's hand for a moment. Then Reggie pressed the doorbell and it took a moment for Trevor to appear at the door. When he opened it, he looked questioningly at the faces of Reggie, Alex and Julie for a moment before pressing his hand over his mouth to keep from screaming in panic.<br/>"Trevor? We're here because....," Trevor interrupted Julie grabbing the three by their hands and pulling them into the house, then closing the door.<br/>"What are you doing here? And why are you still alive?" asked Trevor after he had calmed down a little, much to Julie's surprise. Hadn't Carrie told her he'd been all weird since the concert?<br/>"One thing at a time. Maybe we'd better sit down. I'd like to discuss this with you!" said Julie and Trevor, who still knew Julie from Carrie, finally nodded and the four of them made their way into the living room and sat down on the big couch.<br/>"So, you've come back as ghosts, exactly 25 years later and you don't know why?" asked Trevor after Julie, Reggie and Alex had taken turns telling what had happened recently. Trevor took the whole thing calmly, even though he kept giving Reggie and Alex a panicked look.<br/>"Right. I guess we're here because we have a score to settle and we'd like to know what that score is that we have to settle," Alex said. <br/>"Well, we thought it was a gig at the Orpheum at first, but it wasn't," he added and Reggie nodded.<br/>"And then we met this ghost that's really nasty," Reggie shook himself and got goosebumps all over his body.<br/>"A ghost? So there are more of them out there?", Trevor asked, turning pale.<br/>"Well, we don't know that many of them, but one of them who acts like a boss called Caleb is the worst of them," Alex said and Trevor shook himself.<br/>"Is that one of those guys with such a dark aura? Is he wearing a hat and a long coat?" asked Trevor and Alex looked at him, puzzled.<br/>"Where from?" he asked and was interrupted.<br/>"You wouldn't know, but back that same night while you were out eating the hot dogs, he was with me. He just appeared out of nowhere and started talking to me," Trevor told him and Alex knew they were in the right place. If anyone knew anything it was Trevor.<br/>"What did he want from you? Did he say anything to you?", Alex asked and was about to ask more questions when Reggie punched him in the side with his elbow.<br/>"Well, he didn't really want anything from me, he just said that it all made sense and that I would understand eventually," Trevor looked down.<br/>"After that I got the news that all three of you had died and I was there all alone in a hall full of people waiting for our concert," Trevor added, looking at Reggie and Alex again.<br/>"Okay, just so I understand now. He seriously said to you that there was a point to all this and that you would eventually understand?", Alex asked again and Trevor nodded.<br/>"I've been thinking for years what he could have meant by that but I just couldn't think of anything. And then I saw you on the internet on Carrie's laptop and I went to the Orpheum," Trevor said, his voice trembling.<br/>"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you again, because everyone was trying to make me understand that you'll never exist again and that I should forget you because otherwise I'll only grieve," these words almost made Alex cry, but he held back the tears.<br/>"My parents took away all my instruments and sheet music and we moved away from here. Then they sent me to a school where I learned to sing and became what I am today," these words hit Alex even harder.<br/>"That's just...,I just don't understand," Alex hesitantly brought the words over his lips.<br/>"I know you didn't have it easy either and I could watch your parents disappear from here as well. They didn't want to be here anymore because everything reminded them of you and they didn't want to be reminded of what bad things happened here," Trevor straightened up.<br/>"But with time everything just changes and I notice that every day.", he said and ran into the kitchen, then came back with three cans of Coke and a still water.<br/>"Anyway, after being at this school for several years, I then came back here and built my mansion here. Being a star does make some things easier," Trevor told me after sitting back on the couch and handing out the cans of Coke to the others.<br/>"That's just like my parents. They've always wanted nothing to do with me since I came out. You should have seen them. It was pure chaos," Alex muttered, but actually he wanted to be able to see his parents again, but whether they wanted that was another question.<br/>"But now back to Caleb. Did he say anything to you or contact you again because he wanted to know something from you? Or did you see him every now and then in your life?" asked Julie, who didn't like Caleb and was thinking about Luke. She just didn't want to believe that Luke was in Caleb's power and that she couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't like her at all. Normally she would immediately make sure that all the problems were taken care of and that there were as good as no more problems.</p><p>When Luke slowly opened his eyes, it took him a short moment to get used to the small, not exactly strong light. All around him, darkness lurked and seemed to engulf him. Luke hated the darkness and the silence. He never liked it when it was quiet around him all of a sudden. He always needed some music on his ears, or a familiar voice, so he wouldn't lose his mind completely. But being here in a place where there was only darkness, silence and him alone was slowly driving him crazy.<br/>"Now just don't go crazy!" his inner voice reminded him to just stay calm and not to breathe in panic, but to just think normally about how he would best proceed now.<br/>"That's easy for you to say!", Luke muttered as he got up from the floor and slowly felt his way around in the darkness. He hoped to find a wall to sneak along, just so he had a bit more footing and didn't completely lose his bearings.<br/>"Luke, you're always the kind of person who has a clear head and can assess everything accurately. So why would someone like you lose his mind in a situation like this?" the inner voice asked and Luke took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. He had to keep his wits about him. He couldn't just start screaming now, even if he wanted to. No. He had to keep a cool head now and think about how he was going to get out of here, let alone what he was even doing here and why he was here.<br/>"Okay okay, yeah I know," Luke said and stopped after still not finding a wall. It was hard for him to concentrate because he didn't know if something could happen in the next moment that might change everything again or make the situation worse. Luke took a deep breath. In his mind he saw the various images of the moments he had had in the last few days. Moments with Julie. Moments with Reggie and Alex, and moments with Caleb. Oh, how he hated that ghost. It was only because of him that they were in this unexplainable situation, and no one could really help them or had an answer to their questions. They were on their own as always, just like back in 1995, only different.<br/>"I need to think and I need to get out of here before Caleb gets here," Luke said to himself and took another step forward when he suddenly heard footsteps that didn't come from him. The footsteps were still far away, but he could hear them coming closer and closer.<br/>Luke panicked, no, actually he wouldn't panic at a time like this, unless he was all alone without his friends, then of course it was something else again. His heart was beating faster and faster against his ribs and he felt like he was about to have a heart attack because his whole chest was hurting. He heard the footsteps coming closer and they were no longer far away from him. But what was that? It sounded like someone running straight at him. It certainly wasn't Caleb. He would hardly start running because of Luke. He doesn't care about him at all, does he?<br/>Luke didn't know exactly which direction the footsteps were coming from, because in the dark room, or wherever he was, it sounded like the footsteps were coming from all directions. He couldn't really place it. Then the unbearable silence reigned again for a moment before Luke heard a door open quietly and just a crack of light come in. He saw the outline of a person, but he couldn't tell if it was a human or a ghost. HE was not alone here after all.<br/>"Okay, no need to panic. I'm not alone here," Luke said quietly to himself when he saw that the other person had noticed him and was coming straight towards him after she had closed the door again. She had a small torch with her and a thin beam of light illuminated the room. Luke looked around. He was standing right in the middle of the room. The walls were far away from him.<br/>"Well that worked out great." his inner voice laughed at him and Luke could have punched himself for that. He hated it when his inner voice became active again. He didn't want to talk to it, especially not now.<br/>"But?", Luke rubbed his eyes as the person was now standing right in front of him and he could recognise her. It was Willi.<br/>"Willi?", Luke asked, sounding hoarse.<br/>"Luke? So he locked you in here after all.", Willi sounded helpless and frustrated with Caleb's behaviour.<br/>"What's that supposed to mean?", Luke asked, looking at Willi while his chest still hurt and his heart still hadn't calmed down.<br/>So had Caleb kidnapped him and brought him here after all?<br/>"Caleb went completely nuts. He just jumped up and set off to find you because he's up to something with you but I don't know what exactly he's up to," Willi said and Luke didn't know what to think. Willi was nice enough, but he was in a team with Caleb. And Luke didn't like Caleb.<br/>"Wili? What's he going to do with us?" he asked him and Willi just shrugged his shoulders.<br/>"I have no idea. He doesn't talk to me about that," Willi said with tears in his eyes.<br/>"But I think he's specifically targeting Alex. God Luke, this can't happen, you hear me? I can never forgive myself if he does something to him," Willi wrapped his arms around Luke who just stood there not knowing how to react or what to say now.<br/>"Okay okay, it's okay," Luke said, his nerves going crazy. He tried to act as normal as he could and not lose his mind completely, but that was easier said than done. Everything inside him bristled against itself and that around him. Thoughts raced in his head and much of it was about Julie and about his two friends, more than about himself.<br/>"Wili? You have to tell me what Caleb is up to, it's the only way we can do anything about it!" urged Luke and Willi had let go of him again.<br/>"I can't do anything about it, he has me under control. If he found out I was helping you, he'd kill me," Willi said, pointing to his arm. There was a circle there, but it didn't look like the one Luke and his friends had. No. It looked like it had been burnt into his skin.<br/>"Oh my God, Willi! What has he done to you!!!",Luke couldn't believe it. How could Caleb do such a horrible thing to such a nice ghost? Surely that was neither humanly nor spiritually correct.<br/>"He's just very angry, and I can understand him too-",<br/>"Oh no, you can't have that here. You don't have to understand that. The guy is just crazy and you should get out of here as urgently as I did, so that's clear. He can't deal with anyone like that!", Luke hadn't let Willi finish.<br/>"But how do you figure that? Caleb is powerful. More powerful than anyone else.", Willi looked to the floor.<br/>"He's going to take what he wants. He will take what he wants. And he will get what he wants. That's the way it's always been and no one can stop a spirit that powerful," Willi explained and Luke had to think. There had to be a weak spot somehow. Everyone has a weak spot, and Caleb has one too.<br/>" Get me out of here and come with me. He can't hurt you as long as you're with us!", Luke decided, not sure how he was going to manage it all, but he knew he had to get Alex and Willi back together, it was the only way part of this story would change.<br/>"We have to be really quiet though, or someone will hear us!!!", Willi grabbed Luke's hand, tucked the torch under his other arm and pulled Luke with him. They walked down a long dark corridor and finally reached an iron door. Willi opened it and they were suddenly standing in front of the Orpheum.<br/>"How did we get here now?" asked Luke, looking around in wonder.<br/>"Well, Caleb's club has moved and his latest hideout is at the Orpheum," Willi said, pulling Luke with him.<br/>"But how can that be? Someone would have to notice if a ghost club suddenly moved in there, wouldn't they?" asked Luke but Willi shook his head.<br/>"Not necessarily. Caleb already has his tricks how to do it best," Willi said.<br/>"Well, that's true again. You just can't beat Caleb because he has too many tricks he uses against others, you don't stand a chance.", Luke hung his head. <br/>"Now don't say that. Just because we haven't found a way to get rid of Caleb for good doesn't mean there isn't a way," Willi was like Alex. He always tried everything to make the others feel better, even if he had to suffer for it himself. But that was just typical for the two of them, that's why they fitted together so well.<br/>"Luke, there's always a way to get justice and I'm still sorry for what he did to you, but it's out of my hands. I can't change him. I can't stop him either. He's too powerful for me," Willi said when they reached the road leading back to Julie's house.<br/>"I can understand you and I don't blame you. On the contrary, I understand very well how it feels to want to change something but not have the opportunity to do so," Luke said and for the first time he felt safe around Willi. Safe from all the evil, and safe from anything that would enter his thoughts. His head was clear again, he didn't have a headache anymore and he felt good, even if the world was just starting to crumble around him and there was nothing he could do about it, at least not yet. He needed a plan. A very good and, above all, very safe plan. It was the only way they would stand a chance against Caleb. And only then would they get the answers to their many questions.</p><p> </p><p>"Do you know Caleb better?" Luke wanted to know from Willi, but Willi shook his head.<br/>"You know, there are people who become ghosts because they have led a life they were not satisfied with. And then again there are such beings where you are not sure if they are already born as a ghost or if they have lived before. And I think the second one applies more to Caleb," Willi answered and they reached the studio, which was empty.<br/>"So you mean Caleb has always been a ghost and didn't have a human life before like we did?" asked Luke and Willi nodded.<br/>"I can't explain his anger at other ghosts any other way, and I can't imagine him as a human either!" admitted Willi.<br/>"He's just far too evil for that and this energy he radiates is also different from that of a ghost who was a human before!", Willi added and dropped onto the couch next to Luke after they had entered the studio.<br/>"Where are the other two?" asked Willi and Luke shrugged his shoulders.<br/>"They must have a reason for not being here. Reggie almost ate a plant the other day, maybe something like that happened and they went to the doctor!" said Luke, remembering his parents watching him and just not having the courage and nerve to talk to them. He wanted to talk to them so badly. He wanted to tell them he was sorry. He wanted to let them know that he was still here, but they wouldn't understand and the last thing he wanted was to scare them. He couldn't watch that. It would break his heart. And he was already at the end, this was as far as he wanted to go, this was as far as he wanted to sink. No. He just couldn't talk to them. He couldn't let them know that he was still there after all. That he watched them every day and had been sitting quietly right in their house for the last few weeks, sitting at the table with them and everything was simple, only they didn't know and couldn't notice because he wasn't visible to them except now. But did they even want to see him? Or would they have an easier time if he didn't show up at all and they knew he was dead? Was that easier than knowing the truth? Luke didn't know.<br/>"What are you thinking about?", Willi interrupted his thoughts.<br/>"I have my parents to think about. They still live here and I haven't been to see them in 25 years!", Luke replied a little aggrieved.<br/>"You haven't visited them since you became human again?" asked Willi, looking Luke in the eye.<br/>"No. I just can't bring myself to look them in the eye. I'll probably scare the hell out of them when they see me again, even though they always think I've been dead for 25 years," Luke said, running a hand through his hair.<br/>"I totally understand your concerns, but don't you think they'd be happy to finally see you again?" Willi asked and Luke nodded. Of course his parents would be happy but he just couldn't go to them. He just couldn't. Something deep inside him was holding him back. Something inside him didn't want him to do it, even though he couldn't think of anything else with each passing day.<br/>"You shouldn't worry so much about it, just do what your head tells you," Willi said and Luke just nodded silently again without saying anything about it. He just didn't know what to do and not even Julie could help him.<br/>"I can totally understand you there. I think my parents would react the same way you think your parents will, but if you really want to see them and don't want them to think you're dead anymore, then you should talk to them while you still can," Willi was right. He was simply right. Luke was aware of all this, but he kept asking himself what if it was all over again tomorrow. If he disappears from here again and never sees his friends again. What if he disappears from everyone's lives for good. What if nobody remembers him and he is just one of many who died because of something really stupid? What then? Is there any value then in him going to his parents, or would he just make things worse than they already are?<br/>"You know, it was a big drama back then. My parents are not like everyone always says. They didn't want me to do music. They didn't think it was a good idea and the music would never be enough to live on. I don't really want to know what they think when they find out how things are today. That music helped me become famous, and that it helped me make myself alive again," Luke said and took a deep breath, then blew it out of him and took another deep breath.<br/>"I guess you all didn't have it easy before you died, did you?" asked Willi, sounding a little sad.<br/>"You can say that again. We didn't have it easy at all. After Alex came out, his parents went crazy and didn't pay any attention to him. And Reggie? He even came to the studio injured once because his father attacked him with a beer bottle when his parents were fighting again," Luke said and remembered very well the day when everything started to go wrong.<br/>"You know, we've always had little problems, but it didn't really start until Reggie got hurt," Luke said, trying to chase the bad images out of his head, but they kept popping up over and over again.<br/>"His dad is not a nice person and we don't know where his parents moved to after they left town. But I can tell you I'm glad he finally got away from them!", Luke ran his hands through his hair. He had a headache and just wanted to be left alone. He had always wanted nothing more than to just be able to live a normal life with his friends as a rock band, but somehow life didn't want them to be okay.<br/>"Oh man, that sounds really shitty. I feel really sorry for you guys," Willi muttered, his face contorted.<br/>"I didn't realise you guys were doing so bad back then," Willi cleared his throat and an awkward silence fell between them.<br/>"Oh you know, it wasn't that bad. It was nothing new for us. We don't know any different," Luke said, not wanting to admit how much the whole thing was bothering him.<br/>"But you didn't deserve that. I mean, you died so young and had no more joy in your lives because so many bad things happened," Willi said and Luke nodded.<br/>"It was just the way it was then and we couldn't change it," Luke admitted.<br/>"We tried everything but it just didn't work out. Nobody listened to us and we were on our own. Just like we are now, except we have Julie," Luke had to grin again at the thought of Julie. But then he remembered a situation that made sense in retrospect. Alex's words made sense now. Luke remembered. </p><p>Flaschback:<br/>"Reggie?", Luke jumped up as his friend stumbled into the studio with a badly bleeding wound on his chest and some scratches on his face. His white Tshirt, over which he had pulled a shirt, was soaked in blood. He had never seen Reggie like this before.<br/>"Hey dude, you alright?", Reggie didn't answer Alex either. He lost consciousness and slammed hard onto the studio floor. He had no strength left to stay on his feet. It was a miracle he had made it to the studio and hadn't fallen over before.<br/>"God, Luke, we've got to do something!" cried Alex in panic and the two of them jumped up almost simultaneously and ran to the lifeless Reggie who was lying on the floor and no longer moving.<br/>"That must have been his father. That rotten bastard. How did I know things would go wrong once Reggie lived there any longer.", Luke grabbed Reggie by his arms while Alex grabbed him by his legs and they carried him to the couch.<br/>"We need to tend to the wounds. He's losing so much blood!", Alex shouted and Luke immediately ran to ask Bobby's parents for wipes and bandages while Alex held his hand over his mouth so he wouldn't throw up at the sight. He had never seen blood before. It always made him sick.<br/>After Luke finally got the bandages, the two of them immediately went to work on Reggie as best they could. <br/>"Honestly, we should stop him from ever going back!" said Alex and Luke just nodded while he stripped Reggie of the shirt and pressed a towel on the open wound. <br/>"This just can't go on like this. He'll probably just kill him next time he throws a tantrum!", Alex didn't know what to do to make Reggie feel better. He knew that Reggie's father was not an easy person to deal with and that it was better to avoid him if one didn't want to fear anything. It was better that way, otherwise something would happen to you and you would have no control over it. <br/>"He must have hit him really hard," Luke looked at the long cut that was on Reggie's chest. Blood was pouring out and didn't seem to stop. Luke was already bracing himself for the worst, that Reggie wouldn't open his eyes at all. The wounds were simply much worse than the last time. Reggie had never lost consciousness because of such wounds, because he already knew that he often got a beating. Luke always had to remember that Reggie was not a person who deserved such a beating. <br/>"What do we do if he doesn't wake up?" Alex looked at Luke with concern, but Luke had no idea. He couldn't give Alex an answer. He didn't want to think about it, Reggie would wake up again. He was sure of that. Reggie was a fighter, he wouldn't be killed so easily, he had too strong a mind for that. <br/>"He'll wake up again, Alex. You know him. He'll get through this!", Luke patted Alex's shoulder who was holding Reggie's hand and squeezing it gently. <br/>"I just don't understand this. How could his father do something like this to him. Reggie is the nicest of people!", Alex looked at Reggie and then looked over his body. He could see some bruises on his stomach, chest and arms, and then the wounds that had been inflicted on him. <br/>"You don't have to understand because there is nothing to understand. The man is just crazy and dangerous!" Luke said and wiped the blood off Reggie's forehead, then put a bandage around a cut on his wrist and put a big plaster on his chest. <br/>"He looks like his dad went at him with a beer bottle and he was trying to protect himself from the sharp shards!" remarked Alex when he saw all the little cuts. <br/>"I agree with you there. We should notify the police so this can finally end!", Luke stood up and threw the bloody towels on the floor, then looked at Reggie. He felt sorry for him and Luke felt even sorrier knowing there was nothing he could do about it. No one would believe a teenager, especially not him, a runaway-.<br/>"You do realise we can't talk to his parents. They don't notice how badly their son is doing. And then all these violent fights, it always takes it out of him," Alex looked back at Reggie after Luke had cleaned up most of the blood.<br/>"I know, but it can't go on like this. He's miserable when he's there and we're not doing much better either. After all, your parents haven't calmed down and mine certainly won't," Luke sat back down on the couch and squeezed Reggie's hand but he still didn't move. Reggie was breathing very shallowly and his stomach and chest were barely rising, as if he wasn't breathing at all.<br/>"I just can't take this anymore. I mean why does it always have to be so bad. Why can't something change for once?", Alex looked at Luke. He was right. Something urgently needed to change at some point, because it couldn't go on like this. Not only the thing with Reggie was depressing the band, there were many other situations that made their lives difficult. And most of them were private problems with parents who couldn't understand or didn't want to understand why their children were so fascinated by music.<br/>"What happened here?!" , Bobby came storming into the garage, looking alternately at Reggie, Luke and Alex, and at the pile of towels on the floor.<br/>"Did you guys butcher something here?", Bobby asked, picking up the towels and throwing them into a basket that contained, among other things, Luke's laundry, who had been living here in the studio for a few days after running away from home.<br/>"Reggie's dad went completely nuts again and attacked him," Luke explained, glancing at Reggie.<br/>"The guy's homicidal. It can't go on like this. Reggie will stay here from now on. I insist.", Bobby fetched a bottle of water and placed it on the small table next to the couch.<br/>"If he wakes up then we should take him to the hospital and get him checked out. We have the gig at the Orpheum in less than a week. He has to be well by then," Bobby reminded his two friends of the big upcoming day they had been waiting for so long.<br/>"We just can't afford any mistakes there. Everything has to go well. It's our only and last chance, you know?", Bobby looked at Luke and Alex.<br/>"Why should this be our last chance?", Alex asked, because there had never been any talk of that before. It had always been their dream to play at the Orpheum one day, because that was just the beginning of an extensive career, but after that they would still sit here in this studio and make music together. It wouldn't really change anything, people would just know them, more than before.<br/>"My parents said to me they're sending me away from here so I can concentrate on singing, not playing an instrument," Bobby slumped his shoulders and looked down at the floor. He would have loved to spare his friends, but he had to tell them about it sometime.<br/>"You want what?", Luke stood up and looked at Bobby, stunned.<br/>"It's not my fault. They don't think it's right what I'm doing here in the band, so they want to find something better for me.", Bobby looked at Luke in whose eyes anger burned.<br/>"I just don't believe it! See, this is exactly what I've been talking about all along. Our parents don't want us to do what we enjoy. They don't want us to do something on our own and succeed at it. They don't even think about whether we enjoy this!", Luke had stood up angrily and was now pacing the studio with a grim look on his face.<br/>"I know, but maybe they're right and we're just getting ourselves into something here that we can't hold on to in the end," Bobby said and Luke gave him a punch on his shoulder.<br/>"So you agree with them?!" he almost yelled at Bobby.<br/>"No. I don't agree with them, but there's no hope for us. Alex can't go home because his parents don't want him there anymore, Reggie's being beaten and someone has to look out for him, and you, you've been living here in this studio for days and you just ran away from home because it got to be too much for you," Bobby said.<br/>"It's not like you have anything left to lose, but I still have a family that takes me almost as I am. And they only mean well with me!", Bobby fell silent after he finished the sentence.<br/>"I just don't believe it. We didn't build this place up for nothing. We started this band because we wanted to. We didn't want to be like all the others our age. We wanted something special and we got it!" said Luke.<br/>"And this isn't just a band between four friends. It's also, for a lot of us, the only family we have left," Luke added, his voice failing.This was just too much for him and he couldn't handle so much negative energy. He didn't want it to be over just because his parents didn't like it. It had taken him years to get to where he was now. It had taken him weeks to find a place where everyone felt comfortable and the problems at home no longer mattered, and it had taken days to finally get everything set up the way it was now. He wasn't going to give that up so easily.<br/>"I know it's a family, and I don't want to give all this up either, but what if the gig doesn't change anything for us? Then we don't have a future either," Bobby said, looking at Reggie who still wasn't moving.<br/>"You know, back when we started this, it was a very different thing for us. Today, though, it's a lot more than it should be," Bobby looked at Reggie, whose chest was rising and falling slightly, but his shallow breathing made it almost impossible to tell.<br/>"Give me a break. This is still a band formed by friendship. And it will stay that way. That concert there is going to change everything and we're finally going to have opportunities we can't even dream of, you know?", Luke asked the two of them, looking at them with wide eyes.<br/>"We can't just give up, not now. He of all people needs us the most," Luke also looked at Reggie and Alex nodded.<br/>"We still want to have a family, but his family hasn't been around for a long time. It's a big mess for him at home and I can understand why he goes back every time, because it's his family and he has no one else. So Luke is right, we mustn't give up now," Alex had said the words more seriously than he had ever done before. His voice was no longer soft and overheard, but strong and firm.<br/>"Then I guess I'm the only one who sees things differently here," Bobby turned and took a step towards the door.<br/>"You're not just going to leave now, are you?", Luke called after him but Bobby didn't listen to him and had already disappeared from the studio.<br/>"Great," Alex leaned back against the back of the couch and looked up at the ceiling.<br/>"That went well again," he looked at Luke but he didn't say anything more. His eyes were on Reggie, then he put his face in his hands and just stared straight ahead, not moving.<br/>"Of course Bobby's not right, Luke. We all know that." , Alex tried his best to cheer Luke up, but Luke didn't respond.<br/>"We always knew there would be one who would eventually quit and not be in the band anymore," Alex didn't know how to cheer Luke up, he just knew he had to make him understand that Bobby wasn't right.<br/>"And if we're being completely honest, it's always been noticeable with Bobby that he's not as interested in our music anymore and doesn't notice the whole band thing as much as other things in his life," Alex remembered how many times Bobby had been absent from rehearsals, just because he always had other things to do, or didn't want to because he preferred to go out with a girl. How many times he had ditched the band and hardly cared anymore. It had happened too many times that Alex didn't even remember the day everything had changed so much and Bobby had decided to do his own thing.<br/>"I just don't know what I'm going to do without this band. After this, there's no life for me without this band.", Luke said quietly and Alex would have barely understood him as quietly as he had said those words.<br/>"Don't say that. There's always life after this," Alex snapped Luke out of his thoughts.<br/>"And our lives haven't even really started yet. Tomorrow the world could be a different place, you know?", Alex said and Luke nodded.<br/>"Hopefully better than today," Luke said quietly.</p>
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